SUNDARGARH: Amid deficit rainfall in 10 of the 17 blocks in rain-fed Sundargarh district, farmers under the banner of Sabuj Krishak Sanghathan (SKS) took out a rally on Saturday demanding Sundargah district to be declared as drought hit. Led by Congress MLAs of Sundargarh constituency Yogesh Singh and Talsara constituency Prafulla Majhi, the agitating farmers holding damaged paddy crops also staged a demonstration. A delegation of SKS led by Singh and Majhi sent a charter of demands to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik through Sundargarh Collector Surendra Kumar Meena.
They said paddy crops in Sadar, Tangarpali, Hemgir and Lefripara blocks along with those grown in areas under Sundargarh Municipality limits suffered due to scanty rainfall. Apart from declaring the district drought hit, they demanded waiver of agriculture loans and adequate compensation to affected farmers, supply of kerosene and diesel at half the market price to run pump sets, uninterrupted power supply to Government and private power-driven irrigation facilities with provision of 90 per cent waiver on power bills, construction of intake wells near all Lift Irrigation (LI) points on rivers and rivulets, digging of irrigation wells with 50 per cent mechanised and rest manual work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and tapping of irrigation potential of rivers, rivulets and other water bodies.
The Collector said agriculture and revenue officials have already been instructed to carry out eye estimation. Meena said he had also visited several affected pockets and would send damage report to the Government for necessary action. On August 22, Singh had met Naveen demanding to declare his constituency drought affected.
Sundargarh Deputy Director of Agriculture RN Satpathy said Sadar, Lefripara, Tangarpali, Hemgir, Subdega, Balishankara, Bargaon, Kutra and Rajgangpur blocks of Sundargarh sub-division along with Kuanrmunda block of Panposh sub-division received scanty rainfall. He said efforts are underway to assess crop loss in respective blocks. After crop cutting, final loss figure would be available.