IMPHAL, July 26: The Nongchup Imphal Loumee-Singmee Chaokhat Thourang Lup (NILSCTL) under the aegis of All Manipur Progressive Farmers’ Association (AMPFA) organized a rally at Sagoltongba, Kongthoujam demanding the state government to declare drought in the state.
The point of demands include, declare drought in the state and make arrangement to face the drought, also make arrangement to compensate those farmers whose field could not be cultivated due to scarcity of water, the failed irrigation system of the state should be check immediately and draft an Agriculture Policy for the state.
Speaking to media persons at the rally, Saratkumar, secretary of NILSCTL, said that last year due to flood the paddy fields in this area could not be cultivated and this year also due to drought it could not be cultivated. Proper irrigation system needs to be implemented in these fields to solve the problem. He also added that constructing a dam at the Nambol River will help in providing water to these dry fields.
It is very unfortunate that the teams of minister who inspected drought situation in the state and the Agriculture department did not even visit this area where there are more than 200 paddy fields, he further said.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the state government’s inaction to cope up with the drought situation, he said that even though the state government had announced earlier that drought will be declared in the state on July 15 but it has been delayed again. The government has not taken any steps to ease the worried farmers.
According to a report of State Agriculture Department, it is said, that the agricultural land in Imphal West District is 27,600 hector in which 16,849 hectare has been cultivated but 10,751 could not be cultivated. The report is not correct. There are many other areas in the state which they miss while collecting their report, said a farmer at the rally.
The farmers present at the rally also said that the RLI scheme is not operational in the area.