Ranipet ryots struggling to water fields due to irregular power supply

RANIPET: Irregular power supply and no clarity on 3-phase power – both these problems are reportedly posing a serious threat to paddy crops in 12 villages in Ranipet district’s Panapakkam firka.

“The crop is at a stage when it needs water to survive. With Tangedco not making a clear-cut announcement on when it will either suspend or resume power supply has resulted in farmers not being able to plan proper water management,” TN Vivasyigal Sangam youth wing state president R Subash complained.

“Though a three-phase supply is mandatory for all farm motors, we are being provided with only a two-phase supply affecting the performance of the motors,” said Rudran another farmer.

Subash said that sometimes power would be stopped between 6 am and 9 am, which is the crucial time to irrigate the fields. “Paddy being a water-intensive crop will not sustain for long if it does not get enough supply. The crop will then inevitably wilt,” he added.

Recently, the power supply was being cut between 3.30 am and 9.30 am and between 3.30 pm and 8.30 pm. On Wednesday, power was stopped between 1 am and 9 am.

“Power supply at night will give a tough time for farmers, who cannot work without lights. Those who have pipelines use gate valves to direct water to the correct field while others have to manually create a path to the needed field,” Sangam Ranipet district president CS Mani said.

When asked about this, Tangedco officials at Kaveripakkam said they were helpless as they receive power irregularly from the local LDC (load dispatch centre). Hence, we are unable to provide an uninterrupted power supply to farmers. Any deviation from this will affect the state grid. It will take at least a week to streamline the supply, they added.

Also, the present practice of levying penalty on the engineer concerned has also resulted in officials being reluctant to take chances to help any section of society, they noted.

Farmers still await payment for paddy supplied to NCCF

Farmers of Vanakkambadi, Vellambi and Valayathur villages in Ranipet district are sore that the National Consumer Cooperative Federation (NCCF) has not paid them for nearly 20,000 bags of paddy procured in April.

According to VS Sankar, one of the aggrieved farmers, “Vanakkambadi and Valayathur farmers each offloaded 6,000 bags of 40 kg each at the NCCF DPC (direct procurement centre), while Vellambi farmers supplied another 8,000 bags of 40 kg each. The total value at the rate of Rs 21.60 per kg works out to Rs 17.2 crore.”

What galls farmers is that paddy was offloaded in April and they were yet to receive payment though more than a month has passed. “We need the money to settle pending crop loans and to opt for a fresh loan for the next crop,” sources said.

Another sore point is that despite the Food Minister’s repeated assurance that commission (mamool) should not be demanded from farmers for unloading, cleaning stacking and loading paddy in lorries, amounts ranging between Rs 40 and Rs 60 were still being collected.

“We wonder why the staff at DPCs continue to demand commission when farmers themselves are doing all the above-mentioned jobs. In addition to this NCCF DPC officials collect another Rs 10 per bag claiming it as ‘office expenses,” Sankar said.

Though Sankar submitted a petition on May 19, which included the collection termed as office expenses, to the Collector there has been no remedial action so far. “When I spoke to the DPC officials they say no action will be taken as the money goes to the people at the top,” Sankar told DT Next.

Repeated attempts to contact NCCF coordin0ator Mohammed Thariq proved futile. However, TNCSC sources said that the payment issue was mainly because the NCCF allotted limited funds to a region – (the TNCSC allots payment based on daily needs) - which was not enough. “Many farmers complain to me about delayed payment, and I request the NCCF to help them,” an official said.