Farmers delighted with municipality’s decision to pay irrigation bill

Golbazaar, April 5 : The Dhangadhimai Municipality in Siraha district has come up with an incentive to local farmers. It has made a decision to pay the electricity bill of farmers using power for irrigation purpose.

Mayor Shiva Shankar Mahato said the Municipality is paying the farmers’ electricity bill for irrigation under the approved programme for the current fiscal year. According to him, the municipality has implemented the ‘Programme of paying the electricity bill for ‘agriculture metre’ with the objective of incentivizing the farmers and modernizing the agriculture sector. The farmers here are delighted with the municipality’s decision to provide free electricity. Bechani Kumari Yadav, a farmer of Dhangadhimai-1, said the programme of paying the farmer’s electricity bill by the municipality has provided relief to the farmers who are already facing various challenges as shortage of seeds and fertilizer, and not getting the decent price for their products. “We farmers are always in financial crunch. Irrigation by using diesel pump was costly. Now, the municipality’s decision to pay the electricity bill for irrigation has come a as a big relief,” she said. Another local farmer Shyam Yadav described this scheme implemented by the municipality as a model programme started by a local government.

He believes that this will attract the farmers towards cultivation. As per the provision of the programme, the Municipality will pay the electricity bill of farmers for irrigation from the month of Saun (Mid-June to Mid-July) while the farmers themselves will have to pay the bill of the period before Saun, Municipality’s chief administrative officer Gopal Prasad Bagale said.