Inadequate power supply irks farmers

Kurukshetra, April 16

Inadequate power supply to agricultural fields has become a matter of concern for the farmers who have sown sunflower, sugarcane and green fodder.

During the wheat harvesting season, the power supply to agriculture fields is reduced so that the matured wheat crop could be saved from fire incidents. But it becomes a matter of concern for farmers who have sown other crops and need to irrigate their fields. The farmers alleged that they were not getting even five hours of power supply every day.

BKU (Charuni) threatens agitation

• The BKU (Charuni) has threatened to launch an agitation if the power supply was not restored to eight hours
• BKU (Charuni) chief Gurnam Singh Charuni said the matter had been taken up with the officials of the power department but to no avail

Rajiv Sharma, a sugarcane farmer, said: “We understand that the power supply needs to be reduced during the harvesting of wheat, but what about other crops like sunflower, sugarcane, fodder and vegetables where irrigation is required. Currently, the sowing of sugarcane is on and in case timely irrigation is not done, the germination of seeds gets adversely affected.”

Rakesh Bains, a sunflower farmer, who is also the spokesman for the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Charuni), said: “I have sown sunflower on 18 acres. Due to rising temperature and inadequate irrigation, cracks have started developing in the fields and it may have an adverse impact on the crop. A blanket order to reduce the power supply will not work in agriculture because crops and the requirement of fields are not the same in every district. The power department should come out with some plans to ensure that the power supply is provided as per the requirement of the area and crop.”

Vinod Rana, president of the Ganna Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, said: “At least eight hours of power supply is required for the sugarcane fields but we are hardly getting power supply for even five hours. The farmers are forced to burn diesel to irrigate fields and it will increase the cost of production.”

Meanwhile, the BKU (Charuni) has threatened to launch an agitation if the power supply was not restored to eight hours.

BKU (Charuni) chief Gurnam Singh Charuni said: “. The matter has been taken up with the officials of the power department but to no avail. A letter has also been sent to the state power minister in this regard requesting him to ensure that adequate power supply is provided to the agriculture fields else the farmers will be forced to open a front against the government.”