Ryots miffed at theft of wires laid for agri motors near Gudiyattam

VELLORE: Farmers of Upparapalli village, 7 km from Gudiyattam were unhappy over the theft of nearly a km long wire, which connected their farm motors to the main line in the village last weekend. They lodged a complaint with Gudiyattam taluk police who were investigating.

The mass theft came to light on Saturday in the farms owned by Boopalan, Govindaraj, Baskar, Tilak Babu and Baskar and others – who did not want to be named - at Upparapalli village. Sources revealed that the wire was lifted for copper content, reportedly by anti-socials who sell it to get money to purchase ganja.

According to PMK Vellore district deputy secretary and one of the affected farmers AC Babu, “More than 10 farmers lost their wires, which mostly connect the motor in the shed to the borewell some distance away. Only 7 came with me and complained to the police, who just took our complaint and did not bother to provide us with either an FIR or CSR.”

Elaborating he said, “I just spent Rs 1.50 lakh for farming and lost it and now have taken a Rs 70,000 loan to raise a banana crop. The loss of wire will set me back as I have again to spend a sizeable amount to give the connection again.”

Asked whom he suspected, Babu said, “Some youth who were involved in consuming ganja fled to Bengaluru the moment we went to the police while in another case 3 persons from nearby Thattaparai were seen in the locality when another farmer lost about 150 metres of wire. The youth steal the wire for its copper content which when sold provides them the money to purchase ganja.”

“The loss can be understood when a metre of this wire costs upto Rs 160. In a recent case, the wire was cut when the motor was running,” an affected farmer not wanting to be named said.