Paddy crops wither as motors go without power

According to villagers, there was a power failure on June 2 owing to a snag in a transformer in the area. “The next day electricity supply to houses alone was restored to enable the supply of drinking water,” said Gopi (35).

Despite an assurance from TNEB officials that power for motors would be restored at the earliest, villagers claimed that so far electricity has not been restored to irrigation motors.

“We were told every day that the power supply would be resumed immediately, but it has not happened. All of us have lost heavily, especially those who had raised nurseries for the white Ponni variety,” said Baskar (45), an affected farmer.

The prevailing crisis has affected the livelihood of all farmers in the village. “We are now forced to cough up between Rs 400 and Rs 700 for arranging a tractor load (4,000 litres) of water,” said Gopi, adding that this water might help him to save some quantum of his standing crops. “However, rest of the farmers feel even this effort cannot help them as the crops have withered to such an extent that they cannot be saved,” he said.

According to K Sathiyamoorthy, General Secretary, Vellore District Consumer Forum, the farmers have approached the forum after EB officials allegedly took Rs 1,000 each from around 30 villagers to set right the problem, but they failed to restore supply. “We are examining the issue to ensure the aggrieved persons get justice,” he said.

Meanwhile, EB officials, on condition of anonymity, told DT Next that they were struggling to find a spare to replace the faulty transformer.