Drought alert in N Bengal

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Aug. 21: Employees of the agriculture and irrigation departments in North Bengal have been asked not to take leave in the face of a drought-like situation in the region. They have also been instructed to make arrangements for distribution of water free of cost to the farmers for aman plantation and jute retting.Though the cut off date for transplantation of crops is over, the farmers are willing to transplant aman crop to make up for the losses they suffered, at least at the last stage. The entire North Bengal region has been reeling under an unprecedented drought-like situation, owing to scanty rainfall in July and August. “This is for the first time in the last 10 years that the region has faced such a drought- like situation,” an official of the agriculture department, said. “The estimated loss of aman crops has been estimated over Rs 90 crore so far and it may go up if the dry spell continues,” said Mr G Ahmed, principal agriculture officer of Malda. On other hand, the farmers alleged that they are not getting sufficient water supplied by the “agri-mech” department for aman crop transplantation and jute retting. “Owing to a communication gap, we have been facing problems to distribute water to the needy farmers. When the agriculture development officials prepared a list of farmers, the local agri-mech officials denied to provide water to them, on the ground that they had not received any such order from their authorities,” said an officer of the agriculture department. The ADOs have been asked to make a list of farmers who are willing to take water from the government to save transplanted aman crops. “We are facing problems to save the transplanted aman crops in some areas,” the Malda PAO, said. The executive engineer, agri-mech division 1, Mr AK Nag, said that he has convened a meeting with the assistant engineer concerned to supply water to the farmers in advance after reviving the defunct unit to fight the drought-like situation. He said that he has urged all his staff not take leave at this moment. It’s not just aman crop and jute retting, even saplings planted in Hemtabad, Kaliyaganj and Itahar blocks of North Dinajpur district, have been affected by the prevailing drought-like situation in the district. A few months back, the Raiganj social forestry division had planted nearly one lakh saplings along roads at Itahar, Kaliyaganj and Hemtabad under the Rashtriya Sama Vikash Yojana, a Central government project. Around 40 thousand saplings have dried up in the absence of adequate rainfall. A large number of saplings are on the verge of getting affected. The forest officials, too, are upset with the drying up of saplings in the district. Mr AK Das, the divisional forest officer of Raiganj social forestry division, said: “The saplings were planted along roadsides in the rural areas and were being looked after by our staff. As water has vanished from all the roadside ditches and the nearby ponds due to the present dry spell, more than 40 per cent saplings have dried up in Hemtabad, Kaliyaganj and Itahar blocks. If it does not rain in the next seven days, more plants would be affected. We have sought help from the panchayat members of the locality and they have been requested to co-operate with the forest staff.”