After drought apathy hits Kadur

The farmers in the taluk who have been waiting for compensation from the government are now cursing the district administration and revenue department in desperation. The farm cultivated with sesame, pulses, yard long beans (alasande) and sunflower have dried.

The tag of ‘drought hit taluk’ too did not come easily, say the farmers. “The elected representatives had staged a lot of acrobatics to get the tag. Now it looks like there is no meaning to the tag. The government must have declared the taluk as drought hit just to put an end to all the chaos that fueled in the Taluk then. If the
Government was serious it would have done all the things required to get the farmers out of the desperate situation,” says Sangappa, a farmer from Malleshwara.

Shyama Naik says that through media he learnt that the taluk has received Rs 3.30 crore. “Is this amount enough for this big taluk? How can a drought hit taluk be rehabilitated with this money? I fail to understand on what basis they have released this amount. I suspect that officials have misled the Government,” Naik says.

Hirenallur, Giriyapura, Antharghatta, Basur, Birur are the regions which have been
growing Onion. But, since rains failed right at the sowing period, farmers could not cultivate Onion, thereby incurring huge loss as they had already invested capital into fertilizes and seeds.

Nobody visited us

The farmers say that though their problems have been going from bad to worse none of the officials concerned have had the courtesy to visit the area and assess the problems of the people.

“Last year we lost Onion yield due to heavy rains. Every year we are facing one or the other problem. After series of bitter experiences we feel that living with whatever little we have is better than anticipating help from Government,” says Krishnamurthy from Basur.

Publicity stunts

Angry residents of the Taluk say that leaders across the political spectrum paid a visit once and then forgot about Kadur.

“Deputy Commissioner to Revenue officials, Opposition leader Siddaramaiah to MLC Y S V Datta, all came to the region, posed for pictures with helpless farmers, gained lot of publicity, left and never returned,” says a farmer.

“Authentic study on drought has never happened. Nobody has done a sincere effort to know the problems of the region,” said Shiva, a resident of Garje village adding that though Government could have started ‘Goshalas’ to take care of the cattle, it has only distributed 8200 fodder kits in the Taluk.

The residents of the Taluk who expected the government to take up employment programmes for the local youth and drinking water projects to supply potable water to the taluk have been disappointed by the gross negligence of the government.

From the allotment

The taluk has received Rs 3.30 crore. From this amount, a huge portion has been allotted for dredging of water sources. As many as 313 works are expected to be taken up along with distribution of 8,000 fodder kits, drinking water project and dredging work.

As many as 91 lakes will be dredged at a cost of Rs 2.24 crore. A total of 157 drinking water work will be taken up at Rs 63.15 crore. There are plans to build 15 water units for cattle at a cost of Rs 15.85 lakh.