Declare Tirunelveli district drought-hit, urge farmers

After being let down by the southwest and northeast monsoons last year and with the southwest monsoon yet to begin this year, the farmers, who have suffered huge crop loss due to water scarcity, have appealed to the Tamil Nadu Government to declare the district ‘drought-hit’ as it would ensure awarding of crop loss compensation to the agriculturists.

After being let down by the southwest and northeast monsoons last year and with the southwest monsoon yet to begin this year, the farmers, who have suffered huge crop loss due to water scarcity, have appealed to the Tamil Nadu Government to declare the district ‘drought-hit’ as it would ensure awarding of crop loss compensation to the agriculturists.

 “Since I’m witnessing the problems being faced by the farmers due to successive monsoon failure, I’ll recommend to the government to declare entire Tirunelveli district as drought-hit,” assured Collector K. P. Karthikeyan during the farmers grievances redressal meeting held here on Friday.

 Raising the issue, farmer P. Perumbadaiyar of Thirukkurungudi said the district had not recorded significant rainfall during the past 18 months as the southwest and the northeast monsoons had let down the district. Consequently, the farmers had suffered huge crop loss due to paucity of water. “The Collector should recommend to the government to give crop loss compensation to the affected agriculturists”, he appealed.

 After a few more farmers backed Mr. Perumbadaiyar, Dr. Karthikeyan said the monsoon failure, caused by El-Nino, had resulted in crop loss during last ‘kar’ and ‘pisanam’ paddy seasons and the agriculturists could not go in for ‘advance kar’ paddy cultivation in February as storage level in Papansam and Manimuthar dams were precarious.

 “Hence, we’ll explain about the situation prevailing and recommend to the government to declare Tirunelveli a drought-hit district so that the affected agriculturists will get due compensation for their crop loss,” said Mr. Karthikeyan.

 When the farmers complained about the non-disbursal of insurance benefits for crop loss, the Collector exhorted the officials to work overtime to ensure the timely disbursal of insurance benefits to the affected farmers.

 “The timely disbursal of insurance benefits will be of great help to farmers for making arrangements for ensuing crop season,” the Collector said.