Keonjhar: The government executed a number of schemes including Jalanidhi to boost agriculture, but new guidelines, imposition of GST and lack of electricity have come up as hurdles in proper execution of Jalanidhi scheme in Keonjhar district leaving farmers to suffer.
The scheme being implemented since 2013-14 entails digging of bore wells. Earlier, farmers were allowed to sink tube wells in their private land measuring about 2.5 acres. Now, the guideline has changed. A tube well is allowed to a farmer to fix on a patch of land measuring five acres. Farmers alleged that the changed guideline for five acres of land has been a major problem for them.
They also pointed out that just one tube well is not enough for irrigating five acres.
Scores of marginal farmers and sharecroppers do not have enough land at one place and are deprived of drawing benefits from the Jananidhi.
Earlier, the executive staff of the agriculture department used to help farmers in setting up tube wells and took up responsibilities for the project for at least one year.
Now, new guidelines have entrusted all responsibilities with farmers, who do not have technical knowledge to execute it.
Another problem is, electricity is not available in all rural pockets. Earlier, in case of power cuts, there was a provision of running generators for bore wells. Under the new guidelines, the generator system has been removed, leading to problems for farmers.
In the previous system, funds towards the project cost were being credited into bank accounts of the beneficiaries. But now, funds will be credited into their accounts only after completion of the projects.
Many farmers lamented that most of them are not economically strong enough to bear the project costs in advance and get their money remitted later.
The major problem is, now beneficiary farmers have to pay 18 per cent GST, which had added to their problem.
Revenue inspectors usually demarcate project areas. There has been a mismatch while the same land is mapped by satellites to detect the land in the project areas. In most cases, applications of the farmers are cancelled for this reason.
Many farmers have meanwhile appealed to the agriculture department to remove such bottlenecks for successful implementation of the scheme.
