Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar has announced that the Left Democratic Front government will launch cultivation in the Aranmula puncha (paddy fields), which has been lying fallow for the past one decade due to waterlogging, in November.
The Minister, accompanied by Principal Secretary, Raju Narayana Swamy, and other senior officials attached to the departments of Agriculture, Irrigation, and Revenue, visited Aranmula on Monday, exploring the possibility of launching cultivation in the puncha in a time-bound fashion.
Enthused by the villagers’ verve, Mr. Sunil Kumar said the government had got a constitutional obligation to protect the paddy lands and wetlands and the LDF government would abide by the rule of law and the Land Utilisation Act in letter and spirit.
The government was for increasing the State’s extent of paddy cultivation to 3 lakh hectares in the next five years and all illegal occupation of farm lands, in violation of the Land Utilisation Act, would be cleared to facilitate successful farming there, he said.
He said the Agriculture Department has informed that peasants had come forward for launching paddy cultivation in 56 ha in the Aranmula puncha in the first phase in November. However, draining out the water from the puncha was a dire necessity to achieve this target and the Irrigation wing of the Water Resources Department should ensure smooth flow of water through the natural streams cutting across the puncha to the Pampa, he said.
Monitoring committee
The Minister said a monitoring committee chaired by local MLA Veena George and Principal Agriculture Officer as convener would monitor the government’s farming mission at the Aranmula puncha. The district administration should strictly comply with the Kerala High Court direction to restore the Karimaramthode. The District Collector should ensure smooth flow of the natural stream leading to the Pampa, he said.
