Drought looms large

Amitabh Ranjan

Magnificent News Production

Patna. Vanshi Singh, a 70-year-old farmer living in one of the villages by the side of southern bank of River Sone, is a hopeless soul and distraught as well. He is fast loosing his hope in this season of Kharif for bumpy crop which he used to reap earlier. Living near Sone is not going to benefit him any more thanks to almost dried up river.

And, at the moment, Vanshi is wondering what if monsoon will too get delayed. He would perhaps nothing but to face complete drought in his large farming area.For him, monsoon is of course a boon to irrigate his farming, but, it is Sone on which he hinges upon all his savings for

the season.

Much to his ill-fate, the river is devoid of water this year to the most part of its length after entering into the border of the state. Apart from cursing fate, he is dismayed that why state government is not taking notice of his predicament and of other cultivators like him.

"They say there is Sushasan (good governance) under Nitish regime but, it has not yet reached to us. And, it will have no effect now as Rohini nakshtra has also been passed off," he makes poignant statement on his state-of-affairs.

"When we ask (officials) about canal water for irrigation purpose they flatly reply that river has no water in its store," he complains.

"We are least bothered by them as it has no meaning to us whether Nitish or Lalu is in rule," Vanshi remarks pungently.

Apart from rain, for decades, Sone has been a sole source of water for irrigation to hundreds of villages located beside it. Ironically and quite contrary to the other time of the year, dried out river has left more than thousand acres of arable land parched and ominous sign of drought is looming large over here. Along with Vanshi, many other farmers of his village including Ajay Singh and Jitendra Singh are also facing similar dilemma and they have pinned their all hopes on the state government to take steps.

However, Jitendra has threatened that farmers would stage demonstration if water problem would not be solved in coming days.

State chief minister Nitish Kumar too has shown sympathy towards farmers but, he blames neighboring states Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and defective agreement over Ban Sagar dam project.The Ban Sagar dam was an out come of an agreement signed by three states- Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar- to share the water of Sone.

On Monday, when Nitish was asked about the impending drought in southern part of the state, he alleged that the agreement had not yielded enough quantity of water to Bihars farmers.

"The very agreement was not properly done and it has parched many villages here in the state," he added, "I have just returned from visiting those areas and it is indeed not a good sign."

Nitish said that he had urged the Central government to take stock of the situation without delay.