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Pace of drought team visit upset farmers
The three districts of Thoothukudi, Ramanathapuram and Sivaganga have indeed been hit by drought completely, said the members of a Central government assessment team who inspected these places on January 24.
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The team comprising Alagesan, Director (Monitoring), Ministry of Water Resources, and SBTiwari, Under Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, was accompanied by Thatchinamoorthy, Director, TN Agriculture Department, during the inspection.
The districts had indeed suffered 100 per cent drought said the team after a thorough study. It also interacted with the respective district collectors and farmers. The central team confirmed that failure of monsoon had led to withering of crops.
They informed the officials of district administration and farmers that they would submit their recommendations within a week and ensure that maximum compensation amount was disbursed to the affected farmers. However, farmers were not happy about the team’s inspection as they the entire exercise was completed in a hurry.
The pace at which the team carried out the inspection clearly showed that they could have gauged the full intensity of the situation. According to a farmer Vijayaragavan of Jegaveerapandiyapuram in Thoothukudi district, the team hardly spent 10 minutes in his field.
“We tried to explain our problems to them but the team did not pay heed. They were more interested in with interacting with the Collector, M Ravi Kumar,” he said. He also explained that the Eppodumvenran tank was of little use to them. Water could hardly be drawn from it during the lean period as the shutters were not in good shape due to lack of maintenance.
The tank also needs to be desilted, he added. Owing to these problems much water could not be stored in the tank, pointed out Vijayaraghavan. Similarly, farmers in Ramanthapuram district too were not satisfied with the inspection. But they found time to voice out their grievances.
Nagendran, a farmer from Kadugusanthaisathiram, Ramanthapuram district, said that the compensation given by the government was not enough. He asked for a sum of Rs 25,000 per acre. The same team visited Tirunelveli district on Monday to assess the drought.
Ryots seek cultivation cost as compensation
Farmers of delta districts appealed to the central team to provide at least the cultivation cost of the samba crop as compensation. The team, led by Vasudha Mishra, MD, National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) with Deena Nath, Consultant, Finance Commission Division of the Finance ministry, Sumeet Kumar, Deputy Director, Ministry of Power as its members, on Tuesday inspected Kovilpathu village in Budalur block.
Officials of agriculture department said out of the total 323 hectares of normal area in the village only 144 hectares was sown and crop damage was more over 90 per cent. When the team stopped at Pudhupattinam village, R Jayasankar of Kokkeri village, who had cultivated 5 acres, told them that he had been losing Kuruvai crop for the last five years and this year Samba too failed.
Kakkarai R Sukumaran told the team that the farmers had lost faith in central teams as there had been no satisfactory benefits from such visits. He appealed to the team that the compensation amount recommended by it should at least meet their cultivation cost. Later it visited Mela Uloor, Chokkanavoor villages. K Satyagopal, Principal Secretary cum Commissioner of Revenue Administration, A Annadurai, Collector accompanied the team. Later, the team visited Karnavoor village in Tiravarur. Farmer Mannargudi S Ranganathan, explained the plight of agricultural community. The team also visited Vadakadu Kovilur, Uppur villages.
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