LAGATAR24 NETWORK
Daltonganj, August 16: Palamu is reeling under erratic rain and stressed sowing.
DC Shashi Ranjan said today, “The rains are pretty erratic here. The long dry spell further aggravates the situation.”
“There is very meagre paddy sowing and even the prospects of it reaching out to yield appears to be not free of the doom,” added the DC.
Paddy sowing is struggling with less than 5 percent of it and Palamu has 50,000 hectares plus for paddy.
To a query of this correspondent, Shashi Ranjan said, “We have 21 blocks in Palamu and none of the blocks has any good thing on the front of rain and crop coverage.”
“The situation is heading towards drought but the administration will first carry out an intensive survey and then a consolidated report of the agrarian situation in Palamu will be sent to the government to take a final call,” said the DC.
He said, “Palamu as such has no industry to rely on. In fact, the money that comes here from the migrant workers eking out living outside the district keeps the rural economy rolling albeit slowly and sluggishly. This is something too concerning.”
On being asked as to how to go about the long dry spell, huge and acute deficiency of rains etc Shashi Ranjan said, “It’s not many weeks that I am here as DC Palamu but what I sense here is that horticulture may prove a boon and can be an alternative agrarian activity in the event of a situation like this and in other normal time as well.”
Shashi Ranjan then talked about his ‘massive works done at Khunti where he said the district Khunti has made an identity of its own in the cultivation of dragon fruits, cheeku fruits, jackal fruits and high-quality yellow melon etc.’
Horticulture can be given a big hand here but he said “Right now when the spectre of drought, second in two years, is looming large, horticulture may not be any immediate mitigation measure. There has to be in place immediate mitigation measures. I am exploring it.”
However, Shashi Ranjan said “We have enormous human resources here but its management is poor. There is a lack of coordination. Offices here work in isolation. This practice has to be shunned.”
On being asked that soon after his joining here as DC Palamu, the first thing that he did was to put on hold schemes worth around 15 crore to which he said “Yes, I did put these schemes on hold. These schemes were all contractor-driven. Schemes should benefit people at large and not one particular coterie of contractors. I have made up my mind to cancel these schemes very soon.”
Shashi Ranjan further said, “Concrete boundary wall is expensive. It suits the contractors. With one-fourth of its cost, there can be barbed fencing or net fencing. This I am talking about in terms of the boundary wall for the schools.”
