Amid lack of monitoring, many deep tube-well operators have been depriving small farmers in Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon of their fair share of water for irrigation. Those operators delay releasing water from their pumps, which leads to frequent crop loss for the farmers. Thrown in a situation they simply cannot cope with; the farmers are then forced into selling their land or leasing out land to others. Many of them leave farming for good and become day labourers to survive. In many cases, the tube-well operators, who have money and political connections, buy those land or take them on lease to grow their own crops. The structural deprivation of poor farmers by the political influence in the extended Barind tract is sheer structural corruption.
The political goons have triggered hapless people to take off their own life in a time when the country observing 51 years of Independent and maiden promise “a society without deprivation” remains unmet. On Wednesday, two farmers of Santal community drank pesticides standing beside a deep tube-well in Issoripur village of Rajshahi’s Godagari upazila. Family members alleged that a well operator instigated them to suicide. Water in the deceased Abhinath field came but only after news spread that Abhinath had died. A feudal system under the protection and impunity system is emerging in the Barind villages.
The government’s Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) appointed operators for its 16,000 deep tube-wells in Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions, earning around Tk 150 crore in revenues annually. More than half of those tube-wells are in Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon districts where water for irrigation is scarce.
Money and politics come into play in picking operators. Many became extremely rich within years after installing water pumps in their areas. The well works like oil mines for many. The operators would help well-off farmers buy or take lease of such land, in exchange for money. They also illegally take crops from farmers for meeting costs of maintenance of equipment needed to supply water to the fields. The feudal system was disbanded around 72 years ago by Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Huq, why is it coming back in the Barind area?
