2 months on, fields remain waterlogged in Jhajjar village

Having lost their bajra and cotton crops due to waterlogging, many farmers of Goriya village here are apprehensive about the sowing of wheat as accumulated rainwater is yet to be removed from their fields.

They say it would have to face a double whammy if their fields are not dewatered soon. The Goriya Gram Panchayat today submitted a memorandum to the district authorities demanding adequate compensation for the crop losses by conducting a special girdawari to assess the damage.

Dewatering soon

Officials concerned have been directed to dewater the fields at the earliest. We will also write to the state authorities for compensation.

Pradeep Dahiya, Deputy Commissioner

“The torrential rains in September led to flooding of over 300 acres of agricultural land in our village. At that time, the bajra and cotton crops were in the flourishing stage, but waterlogging damaged it completely. A majority of the farmers do not have insurance cover, hence we are demanding a special girdawari to compensate the losses,” said Ajit Singh, Sarpanch of the village.

He said the water had been drained out from a major portion of the affected area by the district authorities but a chunk was still submerged, putting farmers in trouble as they were unable to sow wheat in the prevailing condition.

Hawa Singh, another affected farmer, said the crop losses due to waterlogging had pushed farmers on the verge of devastation as they had taken loans. They had now no source of income to repay the loans as waterlogging damaged the crops completely, so the government should bail them out of the crisis by providing them adequate compensation, he added.

Chhaju Ram, another distressed farmer, said the water table of the village had come up considerably in the past some years, hence the land was unable to absorb the rainwater while Anil, another farmer, said they would have to sell their land to repay the loan if the government did not provide them financial assistance.

Pradeep Dahiya, Deputy Commissioner, who joined here 10 days ago, said the issue had come to his knowledge today. “Officials concerned have been directed to dewater the fields at the earliest while we will write to the state authorities for compensation,” he added.