Badasahi: With an aim to increase farm production and income of farmers, the state government has launched the KALIA scheme, but lack of irrigation facilities has been a major issue in Badasahi block of Mayurbhanj district.
In Bhanajabati mouza in this block farmers have been paying water cess on their non-irrigated land for the last 37 years. This has caused a lot of resentment among farmers, who have termed the KALIA scheme a farce.
They said that though they have been apprising the authorities concerned of the vexed issue, nothing has been done. The farmers have recently submitted a memorandum to the tehsildar to exempt them from paying cess as their lands are deprived of irrigation.
According to a report, 24,650 hectares in this block are meant for kharif and 11,342 hectares for rabi crop. Of them, only 14,813 hectares are covered under irrigation. The remaining 9,837 hectares are non-irrigated.
Most lands in Bhanajabati mouza are non-irrigated, but the revenue department has been collecting cess. In reality, farmlands belonging to plots 627; 627/703; 387; 495/697; 496/698; 359; 367; 582; 559; 687 are non-irrigated. But in official documents, these plots were shown as irrigation-covered. The revenue and the irrigation departments have been collecting cess from these farmers since 1983.
Over a hundred farmers, including Sadhucharan Singh, Bhagwan Nayak, Biseswar Nayak and Bharati Nayak, said during the land settlement, the lands were included in the irrigated category. Since then, they have to pay water cess unnecessarily. The lands are solely dependent on rain while officials sitting in offices are doing such anomalies for which the farmers have been suffering for years, they fumed.
Block president of Congress Krushak Cell, Anandashankar Patra, demanded that the amount of water cess so far collected from the farmers should be returned and the government needs to make provision for irrigation in the area.
Badasahi tehsildar Amiya Kumar Rout said a joint investigation by the irrigation and revenue departments will be conducted into the issue to settle it.
Affected farmers warned that if no step is taken in this direction, they will resort to agitation.
PNN