Faridkot
The delayed cleaning of the drains, particularly the Longewala and Pakka drain has led to the flooding of the adjoining fields where the farmers fear the paddy crop submerged under water may wither and die out.
Balwinder Singh, a farmer from Chugha Singh Nagar located on the Ferozpur road alleged that if the drains had been cleaned in time, the situation would not have worsened.
“They are now cleaning this Pakka drain after it was flooded and overflowed leading to the damage of the hundreds of acres of paddy fields of at least 5 villages. Actually, the cleaning of the drain should have been completed in May and June before the Monsoon arrives. But you can see JCBs still at work on this drain.Even in the flooded drains can not be cleaned properly,” alleged Balwinder Singh, who said that nearly 400 hundreds acres of paddy and fodder crops submerged in his village.
He said that his paddy crop on about 13 acres is completely damaged.
Another farmer Gursewak Singh of village Bhana said that Langeana drain overflowed and almost devastated his crop.
“Nearly 400 hundreds acres of our village was submerged due to the overflowing of the drain. It was badly choked by the weeds and could not carry water. It was broken here on the o
either side leading the flood like situation in our fields. We have little hope of the survival of our crop and it will lead to huge loss to us. We demand proper compensation from the government for this loss,” said Gursewak Singh of village Bhana.
The farmers alleged that the Longewala drain was not properly cleaned for some years and only partial work was done on its cleaning.
“Nearly 50 acres of paddy crop has been submerged under water which we had hot on an annual lease for about Rs 70000 per acres in village Bir Sikhan Wala. Now we fear a big loss. All our profit is gone and we are afraid that crops would not survive,” said Kuldeep Singh and Sony, farmers from village Devi Wala.
Jaswinder Singh,a farmer from village Bir Singh Wala said that he has 7 acres of land in Kotkapura rural area which is submerged under 2 to 3 feet of water. The water can not be drained out anywhere and likewise, nearly 200 acres of crop is under water in that area.
“In our village, about 350 to 400 acres of crop is under water,as in some parts, the water can not be carried to any drain. There is an industrial area adjoining to our lands which further aggravated our problem because all their water rushes towards our fields.Our crop will die in days to come as the water will heat up and take many days to recede,” said Surjeet Singh Dhillon, former Sarpanch of village Devi wala.
All the farmers said that now there is no time left for replanting paddy in case it wilts because of water and there is also no paddy nursery available.
The farmers also said that special girdawari was conducted to assess the loss of the flattened wheat crop but termed it as futile exercise.
“Nobody got any compensation from us,’ claimed the above farmers.
DC Faridkot speak
When contacted, Vineet Kumar,DC Faridkot said that there was some delay in the cleaning of some drains. Now all the work is almost complete.
“There was some problem with the tendering process and it had to be done twice or thrice.The monsoon rains arrived before than predicted.The cleaning will be completed by tomorrow,” said Vineet Kumar,DC Faridkot.
He said that the assessment of the crops, if damaged, would be done after week as per rules when the water drains out.
"If there is any loss, I shall write for the compensation to the government,but as the paddy crop is resilient, it is most likely to survive," the DC said.