Save paddy fields from salt water, demands Rythu Sangham

Eluru: Andhra Pradesh Koulu Rythu Sangham (APKRS) District General Secretary K Srinivas demanded government to protect the paddy fields from being polluted with salt water discharged from the aqua ponds in the Delta areas of the district.

APKRS has written an open letter to the District Collector K Bhaskar on Tuesday highlighting the grim situation.

The APKRS general secretary alleged that prawn ponds’ owners are releasing the polluted water into the irrigation canals thereby causing extensive loss to the paddy crop in thousands of acres.

Due to contamination of water, the tenant farmers are put to huge losses.

Though there is no government permission to take up prawn cultivation in the Delta areas, pond owners are cultivating prawns in a big way in the paddy fields, pointed out K Bhaskar and lamented that the officials did not bother to take action against them.

Pond owners are engaged in digging borewells and lifting salivated water from the ground water, averred the APKRS general secretary.

On account of their activities, paddy fields and irrigation channels have become a source of pollution. Paddy fields turned into barren lands due to indiscriminate digging up of salt water borewells, K Bhaskar lamented.

Crops in thousands of acres across Akiveedu, Ganapavaram, Undi, Nidamarru, Veeravasaram, Kalla, Palakoderu mandals suffered extensive damage due to cultivation of prawn culture, he pointed out.

The APKRS general secretary demanded the government to pay compensation to the tenant farmers who lost their crop due to cultivation of prawn ponds.

He also demanded cessation of digging up of unauthorised saltwater borewells in the aqua ponds and register cases against those who are responsible for causing losses to the paddy farmers.