Congress demands alternative land for tsunami-hit farmers

Port Blair, Aug 20 (UNI) The Congress has demanded for alternative agricultural land for those farmers of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, whose agricultural land has either been submerged in the sea or got flooded with tide, after the tsunami catastrophe.

The only solution to this problem is to provide an alternative land so that they can start their lives afresh and ensure a safe future, said Mr Kuldeep Rai Sharma, the president of Andaman and Nicobar Territorial Congress Committee (ANTCC).

Sharma, who had also recently written a letter to the Administrator of these islands regarding this issue, told UNI that due to inundation of sea water the agricultural land of many villagers was submerged in the sea for ever and because of this these farmers are facing problem to earn their daily bread.

Many agricultural lands are getting regularly flooded during high tide and many others are highly salinated and uncultivable, he said.

Land is already available in many places of South Andaman region like Manjeri, Alipur and Shaitan Khari, which could easily be given to these poor farmers, Sharma added.

Many farmers survived the tsunami but lost their land to the cruel waves and, with that, their livelihood. Vast tract of land, 10, 610 hectare to be exact, had been lost to tsunami permanently.

Some have simply disappeared from the face of the earth.

In Nicobar Islands, all the land belongs to the tribal people.

They have moved up and created new plantations. But the farming community in South Andaman that lost 1300 hectare is not that lucky.

They cannot take recourse to such moves since these are revenue land.

And the Congress was now busy with this issue and demanding alternative land. '' We can't let them die without food as they deserve to get an alternative agricultural land so that they could survive well, '' the ANTCC president added.

After tsunami catastrophe, the Government of India has approved a special package for revival of agriculture sector at a cost of Rs 2395 million which includes repair and reconstruction of dykes, site clearance, scrapping of surface salt, application of organic matter, application of gypsum, rainwater harvesting through check dam, creation of water body-pond/well, pump sets, cropping programme, creation of drainage facility, farm implements/equipment.

But nothing had been done for giving an alternative agricultural land to the tsunami-hit farmers.

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