Kerala - Alappuzha   

Divakaran to visit Kuttanad

ALAPPUZHA: With complaints of relief work and procurement of harvested crop in Kuttanad refusing to subside, Food and Civil Supplies Minister C. Divakaran will visit rain-affected areas in the region on Wednesday.

District officials here said Mr. Divakaran, who would interact with farmers during the visit, would also hold a review meeting on the procurement of paddy crop by the Civil Supplies Department from 2.30 p.m. at the Rice Research Centre, Mankombu, near here.

Meanwhile, a high-level meeting convened by District Collector V.K. Balakrishnan here on Tuesday decided to demarcate paddy fields depending on the water-level and identify where combine harvester machines could be deployed for harvest.

The demarcation is expected to be completed by 10 a.m. on Wednesday under the supervision of local agriculture officers, ‘padasekharam’ samithis, representatives of combine harvester owners and the grama panchayats concerned. Once the demarcation is over, a timetable for harvest in these fields will be chalked out and harvesting done accordingly. However, harvesting in fields where the process is already in progress will continue without disruption.

Mr. Balakrishnan has ordered that combine harvester machines, wherever being used, will function day and night to complete the harvest at the earliest. The meeting also decided to make it mandatory for agreements to be signed between ‘padasekharam’ samithis and combine harvester owners on the rates to be charged by the machine owners. A schedule for the deployment of the harvesters has been drawn up and this will be implemented under the supervision of the police station concerned. The meeting also stipulated that a minimum of two machines be used wherever they could be deployed for speedy completion of the harvesting.

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