ANGRY FARMERS

Farmars blaze paddy cultivation in Dinhata

About one hundred villagers have set fire to the paddy cultivation at Nagar Bhangni village in Dinhata of Cooch Behar this morning. As the corns turned smut they did it out of resentment.

An aged farmer, Md Sukur Ali said they cultivated the Boro paddy taking loans from moneylenders. Now it is hard to repay the money as the corns turned smut. Another farmer, Nakul Barman said they bought the seeds from the market but never thought that it would prove futile. "Out of grief we have set fire to the field", they said.

The villagers of Nagar Bhangni, mostly farmers, set fire to the paddy cultivation at about 20-bigha of farmland today.

Replying a question, the acting principal agricultural officer of Cooch Behar, Mr Pranab Jyoti Pandit said the growers purchased the paddy seeds from the open market. As the seeds were non-certified these yielded nothing. In addition, the climate was not fair enough for paddy cultivation. He held these two reasons responsible for making the corns smut. 

This afternoon, the sub-divisional officer of Dinhata, Mr Indrajit Pal said he was yet to get any information about the incident. Without assigning any reasons he preferred to switch off the phone probably to avoid any more talks on the matter. District magistrate of Cooch Behar, Mr Rajesh Kumar Sinha however assured that he would look into the matter to ascertain the actual reasons why the farmers did it.