Central team assesses drought in Arsikere

Farmers poured out their woes before a team of the Central government which visited the taluk for assessing drought situation on Friday. 

The team comprising N M Krishnanunni of the Ministry of Water Resources and J V Vijaya Kumar of the Union Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs visited several villages in Javagal and Banavara hobli and interacted with farmers to take stock of the drought situation.

Farmers said both kharif and rabi crops had failed this year due to paucity of rains. Ground water had depleted to alarming levels and consumption of water with high fluoride content was affecting their health, they said. 

Arsikere legislator K M Shivalingegowda took the team to the dried-up tank in Banavara. He informed the members that the tank had not filled up for the past decade. 

Speaking to reporters at the Inspection Bungalow, Krishnanunni said that according to the report of the district administration, crops on 13,843 hectares had been lost in Arasikere taluk.

 During the team’s visit to Javagal, Y N Rudresh Gowda, Belur MLA, said that a majority of the water bodies in the hobli had dried up due to lack of rains for the past 10 years. He said more than 280 borewells had been sunk in 78 villages of the hobli to tackle water scarcity and 20 villages were getting water through tankers. 

Shivaraju, Joint Director of Agriculture, said that the crop yield had declined by more than 80 per cent since it had rained in June and July. Deputy Commissioner Anbukumar, Assistant Commissioner Sharath and other officials accompanied the team. 

Farmers disappointed 

But farmers were unhappy with the “flying visit” of the Central team. The team, according to farmers, was in a tearing hurry and made a perfunctory visit. It was scheduled to visit 14 villages in Javagal hobli, but restricted the inspection to three villages.