Excelsior Correspondent
KATHUA, Apr 27: There is a brewing unrest among farming community after the burning down of wheat crop spreading over hundreds kanals of land in twin districts of Samba and Kathua during last over one week hitting over a dozen of small and marginal farmers and depriving them of their annual produce which they were going to harvest within days.
The farmers attributed the cause of fire to short circuit of LT Lines running over the agriculture fields for electrifying the tube wells meant for irrigating the agriculture land. They alleged that the failure of department to tighten the wires by installing the bracings between them to avoid a short circuit especially during the blowing of winds often leads to sparking.
The callousness on the part of the department has led to a lot of resentment among the farmers as due to the dry spell the fire spreads the surrounding areas damaging crops in huge area of land.
A farmer’s hopes which he keeps attached with harvesting of crop are dashed to ground after his entire crop is burnt in fire, said Ch Sukhnandan a Kissan leader and BJP MLA.
He said that the PDD was number of times apprised of the fact and requested to tighten the loose wires running over the agriculture land but to no avail. He said a farmer is left with no option but to commit suicide when his entire produce on which he worked for half of a season is burnt in the fields.
Sukhnandan said knowing fully that there is every apprehension of short circuit the PDD authorities were supposed to snap power supply during the harvesting season as no water was needed for the irrigation of land at this time.
Authorities are aware that a small spark can create a havoc during this dry spell so they should take pre-emtive measures to avert such a tragedy which they have failed to do, he added.
He said in entire Jammu region the electric wires running over the agriculture land are loose and in the event of a storm or during the increase in load there is every apprehension of short-circuit.
The wires are not only loose but even the transformers are on ground adjacent to fields that lead to short-circuit said, Madan Lal a farmer of Kathua. He said over a dozen farmers lost their entire Kharief crop due to short circuit caused due to the callousness of the authorities.
It may be recalled that wheat crop over 40 kanals of land was destroyed in Tanda area, 60 kanals in Sankha, 60 kanals in Ramgarh in Samba district and 60 Kanals in Hiranagar and 50 kanals in Chan Tanda of Kathua district during over last one week.
However, the PDD authorities deny the same saying that the chances of breaking out of fire due to short circuit is very remote as wires have been fixed tightly. They said that there can be other reasons for the fire and one of them can be throwing of cigarette bits in the dry wheat fields.
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