Moga, Punjab (June 09, 2014): A day before starting of battle for paddy plantation, the Punjab farmers are making arrangements for irrigation or the labour for the transplantation while Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) is also busy in arranging power for agriculture sector for the current paddy season to be started from June 10.

Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has asked PSPCL on Monday to provide 8 hours uninterrupted power supply in a day for irrigation.

The state government had announced June 15 for the paddy transplantation but the farmers’ unions request agreed him to start the paddy transplantation from June 10.

Though water level table is plummeting at alarming speed and there is lot of hue and cry to retain the over exploitation of ground water but many farmers are going with more deep submersible pumping of the water to irrigate their paddy crop. As the Malwa region is a major part growing paddy crop, the water level is plummeting here and the farmers have to go with more deep pumping of water for their need.

“Along with it, the farmers need submersible motor with higher Horse Power (HP) capacity to pump the water from deep level and the farmers have been submitting their files with the PSPCL to get increased their power load of their motors. Earlier, PSPCL had been charging Rs 1200 per HP but now the farmers have to pay Rs 5500 per HP for getting increased the power load”, General Secretary Bhartiya Kissan Union Ekta Ugrahan, Sukhdev Singh Kokari said.

“To save time and water, the farmers have a wise idea this time. The farmers had been using laser land leveler to level their fields so that the quick irrigation would be initiated and the water would be saved due to this”, Chief Agriculture Officer Moga, Sukhdev Singh Brar said.

The second most important part of the job of farmers is to find sufficient labour for transplantation which is in shortage these days. With the launching of NAREGA in UP, Bihar and other states, there is a drastic fall in numbers of labourers coming from these states from some years. The farmers can be seen waiting outside railway stations with their tractor trolleys to bring the labour with them these days.

On the other hand, the PSPCL expects demand of power about 2000 lakh units across the state every day during the paddy season while the PSPCL has an arrangement of 1900 lakh unit per day from all the resources.

“There are over 13 lakh tubewells across the state for irrigation during paddy season and we expect much demand in the second and third weeks of June and mid of July”, said a spokesman of PSPCL.

“We have over 1000 lakh unit from our own generation, 12000 lakh units from short term purchase, 10,000 lakh units from banking with other states and we will be able to supply about 1900 Lakh unit per day during the paddy season”, he added.

During paddy season in 2012, the demand had exceeded 2300 lakh units per day and the residents and industry had to reel under the scheduled and unscheduled power cuts due to less rain.

The pre-monsoon saved the skin of PSPCL last year.

“If the pre-monsoon and the monsoon comes according to the predictions, we have sufficient power to tackle with the season”, claimed PSPCL spokesman.