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Yajnas held to appease rain god
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, July 19
Distressed over scarcity of water for irrigation, farmers in this region have started conducting mass yajnas or resorting to other rituals in the hope that the rain god will answer their prayers. With monsoon playing truant, power supply being insufficient to run tubewells and canal water in some areas receding, farmers are being left high and dry.

With no rain, paddy crop in a large area has wilted and some farmers have even started ploughing their standing paddy crop up as they are unable to irrigate their fields. This comes after repeated failure of cotton crop in this region.

Such is the state of affairs that the rituals have assumed the proportion of a mass movement. “Everyday a yajna is being performed in one village or the other,” said Mr Gurbachan Singh, a local farmer. This is after five years that yajnas are being performed on such a large scale, he added.

Another ritual of “guddi phookna” is also being conducted in a few villages. A “guddi” was burnt at Nathpura village, about 10 km from here, yesterday, where about 150 women reportedly took part.