Farmers protest official’s letter asking PSPCL to curtail supply

CHIEF AGRI OFFICER SAYS HE HAD WRITTEN TO THE POWER UTILITY ON SUPPLY TO VILLAGES THAT SOWED COTTON, ‘INADVERTENTLY’ MENTIONED ‘ONE HOUR’

BATHINDA: Farmers under the banner of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU Ekta-Sidhupur) held a protest outside the office of the Bathinda chief agriculture officer against a purported letter he shot off to the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) asking to supply power for only an hour till June 20.

Earlier in the day, the farmers protested outside the office of the PSPCL superintendent engineer, demanding power supply for 16 hours to start paddy sowing.

Later, they burnt an effigy of the chief agriculture officer Gurditta Singh outside his office, alleging that he had written the letter to PSPCL asking to provide power supply for only an hour to farmers till June 20 when paddy sowing will start in the state officially.

Gurditta Singh said the PSPCL was providing power for eight hours in villages where cotton is sown and he had written a letter to the power utility informing that cultivation of cotton is over and they can supply electricity as per their own rules now. He said it was inadvertently mentioned in the letter that power be supplied for only an hour.

Meanwhile, farmers under banner of BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan) continued protest outside the PSPCL offices in Maur, Rampura Phul, Goniana, Bhagta and Bhucho demanding 16-hour power supply to start paddy sowing.

The Punjab government in April had notified that paddy sowing in the state will be allowed from June 20 this year instead of June 15 last year.

The decision to further delay the paddy sowing is aimed at reducing the paddy growers’ dependence on groundwater by aligning the paddy sowing dates with the onset of monsoon.

The farmer unions say that delaying paddy sowing till June 20 will result in a high moisture content in the crop, as a result of which procurement agencies do not purchase the harvested crop, and it also delays the sowing of wheat.

The opposition Shiromani Akali Dal has flayed the Congress regime for it, and declared to help farmers if officials flatten their fields on account of early sowing.

Acting tough against the violators, the agriculture department has issued notices to 10 farmers in Bathinda, ploughed the early sown crop and got registered cases against five farmers in Ferozepur.