At a time when suicides by farmers are going unabated, the lift Irrigation (lI) department seems to have learnt no lesson.
Most of the lI points in Sambalpur district remain non operational due to poor maintenance and lukewarm attitude of the officials. At the same time, a tug of war continues between lI department and Wesco adding to the farmers’ misery.
While farmers blame it on poor maintenance by lI department, the later blames Wesco due to its load shedding and low voltage, which do not let the lI points to function.
As per information, a good number of farmers of the district have applied for repairing of their defunct lI units in their respective villages. They have also deposited the requisite fees for it, but to no effect. Most of them are small scale farmers and belong to BPl category. But no one listens to their problem.
After the suicidal death of Sanatan Mirdha of Jharjhari village under Jujomura block of the district, Collector Balwant Singh directed the officials for repairing of the lI points on war footing basis. But it remained in paper only. Except a few points, a bigger chunk goes unrepaired as on today. The Kashipali lI point of Rengali block can be taken as an example, but there are many such instances where farmers don’t get the desired service.
“In some places, the electricity department is also installing transformers and giving fresh connection to the lI points, but it is too late to save the standing crop,” opined Srikant Biswal of Rengali.
“When the suicide of farmers goes in upward graph, the concerned departments are yet to learn any lesson,” Biswal lamented.