97 Malwa villages exempt from paddy schedule

Archit Watts

Muktsar, May 18

With an aim to lessen the burden on electricity and conserve underground water, the state government has announced the revised schedule for staggered transplantation of paddy with conventional method. However, 97 villages in Muktsar, Faridkot, Fazilka, Bathinda and Mansa districts have been exempt from the schedule. Reason: The land in these villages is waterlogging-hit.

A notification issued by the Agriculture Department, reads: “In compliance with the order of the honourable Punjab and Haryana High Court in various CWPs and on the basis of requests of residents of villages received officially, teams of the ground water cell of the Department of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare had inspected or surveyed the land in villages regarding the nature of waterlogging…. the Governor of Punjab is pleased to declare the land of Sri Muktsar Sahib, Faridkot, Fazilka, Bathinda and Mansa villages as waterlogged under Section 3(3)(c) and the area of these villages is exempt from the purview of the “Punjab Preservation of Sub-Soil Water Act, 2009” for a period of two years.”

Rain a worry

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Due to waterlogging, we have to sow paddy early so that before the onset of rains we can harvest the crop. Also, it helps us to sow the wheat crop timely. —Gurbhagat Singh Bhallaiana, BKU leader

Gurpreet Singh, Chief Agriculture Officer, Muktsar, said: “As many as 77 villages are exempt in Muktsar district and farmers here could sow paddy anytime after harvesting the previous crop. It is just because these villages are waterlogging-hit.” Some farmers said the practice was prevalent for the past few years, but it created confusion when the AAP government announced the schedule of paddy sowing this year.

Waterlogging-hit

As per a notification issued by the Agriculture Department, a maximum of 77 villages have been identified in Muktsar district, 11 in Faridkot, six in Fazilka, two in Bathinda and one in Mansa as waterlogging-hit.