Rainfall measured at wrong places: Farmers

COIMBATORE: The weekly farmers' grievance meeting held at the Coimbatore district collectorate on Friday witnessed noisy scenes when the collector's personal assistant announced that Thondamuthur block received 136mm of summer rains.
Angry farmers accused the administration of getting the numbers wrong. They said wrong statistics would have long-term impact on welfare schemes, compensation and insurance payouts for farmers.
The routine announcement, about details of crops cultivated, rainfall received, schemes and subsidies in each block, was made before the grievance meeting began.When rain data from Thondamuthur block was announced, pandemonium broke out at the grievance meeting hall and farmers began shouting.
“If Thondamuthur received 136mm of rainfall, then why are our borewells continuing to run dry more than 1,000 ft deep?“ shouted a senior farmer, K Diriviyam.
The announcement was cut short by more farmers accusing the district administration of measuring the rainfall wrongly and how “it makes no sense“. “If there was so much rainfall, the water levels in Siruvani Dam should have improved and water supply issues should have been solved in the Western part of the city more than a week ago,“ said coconut farmer Karthik Krishnakumar.
The farmers blamed the district administration for the `faulty data'. “They have the Thondamuthur block's rainfall gauge in the Siruvani catchment area, which has always been rain-fed. They can not take that guage reading as reference for the whole Thondamuthur,“ said Krishnakumar, even as taluk officers and the collector tried to diffuse the situation.
“Subsidies, schemes, compensation and insurance payouts for a particular area is decided based on the rainfall data. Due to the erroneous reading, senior officials in the government will believe that our crops are healthy and that we face no problems,“ said district secretary of the Tamil Nadu Farmers Association, A Kandasamy .
The farmers further accused the district administration of submitting wrong data, so that crop compensations and loan write-offs reduce. “If a block looks like it has good rainfall, then the government is saved from compensating the farmers or spending on a scheme. So, it looks like a planned move,“ a farmer alleged.