Rising cases of theft at tubewell rooms in villages upset farmers
Charanjit Singh Teja
Amritsar, November 16
Farmers in several villages on the city’s periphery are upset over incidents of theft in fields where tube-well rooms were targeted in the absence of farmers at night. Unidentified miscreants, reportedly drug addicts, stole iron gates of tube-well sheds, wires and other items. In some cases, they removed roofs, steel iron bars and bricks too.
Ajit Singh Hundal, one of the victims from Verka, said, “Some unidentified drug addicts struck at the tube-well in my fields. They took away the gate of the tube-well room first. Then they removed the roof of the room and took away brick tiles installed on it.”
“The modus operandi is that miscreants keep a watch and conduct a survey of tube-wells in the fields during daytime and at night, these elements, who are also addicts, go take out the iron gates from the tube-well rooms. They have gone to the extent where they dismantled the roofs in some cases and took away the bricks and tiles also,” said Ajit Singh.
“Earlier, the theft of power transformers or oil was reported from the rural areas but now miscreants have touched a new low. They also stole a few meter of overground wire of submersible motors in the fields. A few months back, some unidentified addicts stole an iron pipe attached to a bore-well. The incidents have taken place at many tube-wells in the area. Even some tractors have been taken away. Police may be aware about these incidents but no action seems to have been taken,” said Sahib Singh, a farmer from Malawali village.
Most of the times, when farmers nab anyone stealing items from near tube-wells, they don’t file a complaint with the police for such petty crime committed by drug addicts. The farmers demanded that the issue of drug addiction be addressed in the area to stop such crime.
