Rainwater submerged hundreds of acres of agricultural land in several villages of the district. “Entire paddy, bajra and cotton crops spread over 400 acres in our village have been damaged due to accumulation of water for the past one month. Farmers are under acute stress as proper arrangements have not been made to drain out water from the fields. Even, special girdawari has not been ordered to assess the losses,” said Manjeet, sarpanch of Godhri village. Ravi Kumar, husband of Pharipur village sarpanch Nisha, said: “Besides the agricultural land, rainwater has also flooded residential areas in the village. Pump sets have been installed to remove the water, but they are proving insufficient.” Meanwhile, farmers in a meeting held under the aegis of the All-India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) here today threatened to launch a campaign if stagnant water was not drained out from the fields and residential areas. Inderjit Singh, state vice-president, AIKS, flayed the authorities for their ‘failure’ to check stray cattle menace. Later, the farmers submitted a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner RC Bidhan seeking necessary steps to remove water from the villages and special girdawari of the damaged crops. “The problem of waterlogging has deprived large numbers of farmers of their livelihood in several villages. Adequate compensation should be given under the crop insurance scheme to the affected farmers,” said Inderjit. He said Godhari, Mangawas, Dighal, Lakriya, Dhandhlan, Gangtan, Bhambhewa, Dhaud, Behrana, Aachhej and Phadipur villages were facing the problem of waterlogging. Inderjit said that they had also apprised the DC of the problem of stray cattle causing road mishaps and damage to standing crops. The DC asked them to submit damage claims with the Deputy Director (Agriculture), he added. Source - http://www.tribuneindia.com