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A drought hit paddy field in Imphal east district.[/caption]
Our Correspondent
Imphal, Sep. 4 (EMN): A farmer’s meet in Imphal held under the aegis of Irabot Foundation Manipur (IFM), an organisation here, on Wednesday made a number of recommendations including the formulation of a water policy to address the grievances of the farming community in the state.
The key recommendations made during the day-long meet include full assessment of impacts of the farmers due to drought, distribution and provision of crops compensation and other rehabilitation measures without corruption.
President Th Ajit of IFM, Vice President K Helen of All Manipur United Clubs Organisation, President BK Moirangcha of All Manipur Ethnical Socio Cultural Organisation, President Y Kunjarani of All Manipur Women Voluntary Association, President L Memchoubi of Poirei leimarol apunba meira paibi lup, an women folk organisation, President S Sunilkanta of National Research Centre, Convenor Phulindro Konsam of Committee on Human Rights were present at the presidium of the meet at Manipur Press club.
It also recommends to provide full assessment report of impacts due to drought to farmers and providing distribution and provision of crops compensation and other rehabilitation measures for the loss of their crops in time, besides providing free water, electricity and education for their children without corruption to the drought affected farmers in Manipur.
They also recommended establishment of the grievance cell in the districts to ensure that the affected farmers can submit their concerns besides ensuring rightful participation of the civil society organisations in the assessment of impacts of drought in Manipur.
Urging the government to take up necessary steps to ensure that the irrigation projects are functioning, it also recommended forming a committee with involvement of civil society organisations to monitor and assess the functioning of minor irrigation department projects.
The meet also recommends formulating a farmer’s policy and a water policy to ensure adequate storage of water and also to ensure rejuvenation of water bodies in the state.
It may be mentioned that the Manipur government officially declared ‘drought situation’ in the border state following a high level emergency meeting of officials chaired by the state chief minister Nongthombam Biren on August 31.
It is estimated that due to significant deficit in rainfall, drought has adversely affected crops across 70 blocks of the state, reports said. As per initial estimates, several of those blocks have crop failure ranging for 33 percent to more than 50 percent based on which they are categorised as moderate and severely affected by drought.