Berhampur,15th Jan. With provision of all possible assistance by the district administration,the farmers in Ganjam district who sustained heavy khariff crop loss due to uneasonal rain during last december,at the time of harvest,are pinning hope on the Rabi crops.But lack of irrigation water stood main barrier,due to dried up water sources,are made the farmers apprehensive for a acute scarcity of irrigations water for the Rabi crop.Rivers like Rushikulya,Badananadi,Bahuda,Ghodahada,Lohorakhandi etc rivers in the district has almost dried up,so also the reservoirs including Bhanjanagar, Ghodahada,Baghalati etc are no better.Last year,apprehending heavy rain,the reservoirs released water with the intention to maintain stock.However, with scarce rainfall and substantial water released,the reservoirs are almost dried up.Now,the people
depend on these water bodies for irrigation and daily sustenance are a worried lot.Though the prime reason behind the reservoirs drying up is attributed to lack of rain,the concerned are people and farmers allege the situation arose due to lack of foresight of the dam authorities.On the otherhand the agriculture office sources said,since the harvesting of khariff crops still continued,the target for Rabi crop not yet finalised.However,this year priority will be given for the non-paddy cash crops.Collector Dibyajyoti parida said`we hoped for a bumper paddy crop in khariff,but the unseasonal rain caused heavy damage.Inspite of the crop damage,we are hopefull to achive our target of paddy procurement,which continued in the district.He said distribution of govt assistance and insurence compensation already started and we hope the task would complete soon,said the collector.For the Rabi season,we prepared extensive plans,so that the crop damage be compensation the crop loss in the district.Of the proposals a rabi-kit has been prepared,which will have seeds of varities of non-paddy crops along with pesticides said the collector adding that each kit worth of Rs 10,000/-will be given to farmers in the district at a subsidised rate of Rs 1,000/-only.Despite lucrative plans for rabi season,the farmers in the district still worried a lot for irrigation water.In the absence of water from water bodies in the district,the farmers mostly depend on lift irrigation(LI)points.But now,power supply to most of the LI points has been disconnected for non-payment of power charges,alleged Simanchal nahak,secretary of Rushikulya rayat Mahasabha.He said when other state providing free power to their farmers,TPSODL charges exhorbitantly and disconnected the power supply to around 500 LI points in the district for non-payment of arrear power charges and the lift irrigation and administration sit idle.However the Lift irrigation office sources strongly refuted the allegations saying that,since last two decades the community LI points has been handedover to pani panchayats,who was supposed to pay the power charges and to maintain them.The sources said in the district there are 2000 community LI points and another 3,300 individual LI points and most of them has a debt of huge amount of power charges.The sources further said,during the middle of the khariff season TPSODL wanted to stop the power supply to the defaulters.But due to intervention of Collector the power supply continued during last two months,hence the pani panchayats and individuals should clear their arrears inorder to get power supply.On the oherhand the TPSODL in a fix to disconnect the power supply to the LI points of Individuals.Nahak said,the owner of the individual LI point at the tail end of the power supply has no dues,but if the power supply disconnected of the non-paid owners,there will be no power supply at the tail end,in such a situation a unpleasant situation will be created,which may led to law and order,he warned.The official sources,revealed that to sortout the problem a meeting of district level officials with TPSODL authorities held today.The TPSODL authorities said a sum of over Rs six crores remained as arrers on the LI points in teh district.To clear the arrears instalment facilities would be provided.Besides,the TPSODL has contemplating to install smart meters at the LI points.If any LI points not pays the power charges,power will be disconnected automatically. However,the proposal of smart meter installation has earned simmering discontetment among the farmers.They said when,the domestic users denied the smart meters,which charges additional 40 % of the usual consumption,the installation at LI points will be a heavy blow on farmers,hence the proposal should be dropped orelse the farmers would resort to agitational path.