Rae Bareli (Uttar Pradesh), Sep 4 (Inditop.com) A prolonged dry spell has pushed farmers in Tera village to the brink of starvation. Ironically, it falls in one of India’s most high profile and best looked after parliamentary constituencies – that of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Large parts of Rae Bareli received little or no rain when the farmer was desperately waiting to sow his paddy. But when the rain came in late August, it was much too late in the day and paddy sowing could not be undertaken.
“I own barely two bighas of land which provide me just enough foodgrain to feed myself and my ailing wife. With the prolonged absence of rain, I am going to be on the brink of starvation not very long from now,” said a sobbing 65-year-old Babu Lal, resident of Tera village under Bachrawan subdivision of Rae Bareli district.
“Now we cannot even grow tilli (oilseed) or any other pulse that could have taken care of our four square meals for some time. I shudder to think of how we will make both ends meet in the months to come.”
Babu Lal is left to fend for himself as his grownup children live independently and have little to do with him. The hope of earning a bit by working in the fields of a neighbour is also remote as there is nothing growing in the fields.
Most of the 2,500-odd farmers living in Tera, one of the bigger villages in Rae Bareli and located barely 35 km from the district headquarters frequented by Sonia Gandhi, are faced with the same situation.
The suffering of 75-year-old widow Indrani or 65-year-old Ramai or octogenarian Mahadev or 45-year-old Muneer is no different.
Nearly 90 percent of the Tera villagers are Dalits and socially backward castes, with tiny land holdings that are just enough to sustain them. But few politicians seem to be interested in taking stock of their plight even though the state is ruled by Chief Minister Mayawati, who calls herself “Dalit ki beti” or daughter of Dalits.
The local legislator, Ganesh Lodhi, who belongs to Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, was last seen here only during campaigning for the April-May general elections.
Asked how a big village like Tera was without artificial irrigation facilities despite being in Sonia Gandhi’s constituency – widely known to be among the best looked after constituencies – village head Ram Bharose remarked, “I also fail to understand, but fact remains that Soniaji has never even visited this village.”
The only government tubewell in the village remains under the exclusive de facto control of a powerful and influential individual, whom none could muster up the courage to name in front of this correspondent.
And the minor canal system that is well in place in several parts of Rae Bareli is also not visible in this area that borders yet another drought-hit district, Unnao.
According to Uttar Pradesh’s principal agriculture secretary Rohit Nandan, “Rae Bareli is among the state’s worst hit districts where more than 50 percent of the cultivable area remains unsown on account of the dry spell.”
“Even across the state, officials are now not expecting anything beyond 50 percent of the originally expected kharif yield of 130 lakh (13 million) tonnes,” Nandan told a visiting IANS correspondent.
Ram Bharose also pointed out that a large number of villagers living in abject poverty have been denied Below the Poverty Line (BPL) cards that entitle them to some quantity of free rations.
Even the much-hyped National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) does not seem enough to provide respite to the drought-hit population of Rae Bareli.
