Ray of hope for hailstorm victims

Statesman News Service

MALDA, May 24: Not only farmers, even the Malda agriculture department officials are in the dark regarding the state government’s stand on compensating the farmers who were hit hard by the hailstorm that struck Malda in the first week of this month. Boro paddy was damaged in Old Malda, Habibpur and Bamongola due to the hailstorm. The agriculture officials had estimated a loss of over Rs 12 crore and sent a recommendation for compensation to the state government. The additional district magistrate of Malda, Mr BP Barat, had also sent a letter to the relief department for providing assistance to the victims. On 5 May, the chief minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, had said at an election rally that he would look into the matter after discussing with the departmental officials, but so far nothing has been done. The matter was reportedly discussed at a meeting convened by the agriculture department at the Writers Buildings in Kolkata today. The principal agriculture officer of Malda also attended today’s meeting, the outcome of which has not yet been disclosed. On the other hand, the additional director of the agriculture department had recently held a meeting at Kalimpong, where the agriculture officials of six districts of North Bengal including Darjeeling, were present. The additional director had reviewed implementation of departmental schemes and their evaluation. He had also reviewed utilisation of macro mode funds (Central and state share) allotted for various schemes and asked about the future plans and any problem faced by the agriculture development officials. The officials also discussed about the soil health and present culture of using vermin compost, organic fertilizer and farming pattern to develop the soil health in this region. Integrated schemes for oil seed and pulse and maize were also discussed at the meeting that was held in Kalimpong. Malda officials claimed that they have already distributed over 3,000 soil health cards to farmers for testing soil under the guidance of soil testing centre and agriculture development officers. In order to compensate the hailstorm-affected farmers, the Malda agriculture officials had recommended distribution of mini kit for short duration of aush paddy and expansion of aman cultivation areas by distributing a mini kit of MTU 7029, a variety of aman paddy, assistance for fertilizer like NPK10- 26/26 and plant hormone. The Malda plant protection officer, Dr Tamal Kumar Sarkar, said indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers has assumed alarming proportions in the region. “We have been able to stop indiscriminate use of pesticides in paddy crop in Malda and we always suggest the farmers to use green colour chemical pesticides whose residual effect is lesser,” Dr Sarkar said. He said that Malda would be getting a proposal for building up a “Bio Village” which is running successfully in Jalpaiguri district. #