The salt cultivation in Ganjam has been totally closed for last five years, as the Salt Department of Government of India has arbitrarily stopped the leasing of land. As a result, more than 1,000 families of salt farmers are passing through mental trauma as they have lost their livelihood and are having no other source to survive.
It may be mentioned here that, about 1,500 acres of salt land are located on the side of NH-16 while another 1,500 acres of salt farming land are located in Sumandi area of Ganjam district. Now, these 3,000 acres of salt land are lying idle due to the apathy of the Union Government.
According to information available, the Office of the Superintendent of Salt which was established by the British Government to regulate salt farming surprisingly has become totally defunct for last more than five years.
Former Ganjam Block Chairman and president of Salt Worker’s Union who had led a massive demonstration in 2018 before the Office of the Salt Superintendent and Ganjam district Collector demanding revival of salt cultivation, but the Government had paid a deaf ear to it. Notably, salt cultivation in Ganjam connects to the heritage of the freedom struggle, as the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi had visited the salt sites located at NH side twice during his visit to Brahmapur in 1921 and 1930, sources said.
It may be recalled further that, first Prime Minister of Odisha late Biswanath Das and great freedom fighters like late Sitaramaya and late Dibakar Pattnaik were arrested in salt movement for which under the initiatives of late Biswanath Das, a Salt Society was formed in 1942.
Keeping salt production and its importance in view, Das brought a salt-based industry, namely, Jayashree Chemicals to Ganjam in 1967. Due to halt of salt farming, there is a serious public discontentment in the area. Similarly, another leader of Ganjam and former Assembly Deputy Speaker Rama Chandra Panda, who for decades led the Salt Union, said the Salt Society which unfortunately remains defunct should be revived and the Union Government should hand over the salt land either to the State Government or to individual salt farmer for revival of salt farming as well as the livelihood of the poor salt farmers in the district.