Team Herald
SANGUEM: Sugarcane cultivators at Zanodem in Molcornem have urged for the deputation of a pump operator on Sundays and public holidays for supply of agricultural water in the village.
Cultivators in the locality said there are four pump operators employed by the Water Supply Department to regulate the supply of agricultural water from the lift irrigation system at Zanodem.
Incidentally, all of them work for eight hours and are entitled for the same number of holidays and weekly offs as other government servants. The cane cultivators are critical of the present system and have sought for a change in the same.
Citing examples of the problems faced by the cane cultivators and other farmers, Josinho D’Costa said that last week there were three holidays at a stretch thereby keeping the crop without water for three consecutive days. D’Costa who had a day old sugarcane crop under cultivation, made fervent appeals to the officers concerned to make agricultural water supply available to his farm as there was high concern of the crop getting dried up, but to no avail.
When Herald spoke to the Assistant Engineer Shekavat he assured of looking into the matter and making provisions for supply of agricultural water on holidays but it hasn’t yet happened.
D’Costa opined that the department should make provision for deputation of pump operators on duty also on holidays by giving them compensatory off on some other working day as the crop gets severely affected in the absence of water for a couple of days.
In the alternative, pump operators could also be allocated duties in shifts and this will solve the problem of continuous water supply presently faced by the cultivators, he suggested.
