LOCALS FACE PROBLEMS AS MANY FARMERS CONVERTED ROADS AS THEIR HARVESTING GROUND
Akshya Rout;Odishabarta
JAJPUR: Hundreds of farmers have been harvesting paddy crops on the roads through out the Jajpur district as a result many commuters face lot of problems.
Large numbers of farmers have illegally occupied major portion of the village roads, state and national highways , bridges by heaping their paddy crops. They have no right to illegally encroach the roads during harvesting season”, said Chitaranjan Sahoo a bus driver.
Large numbers of farmers illegally converted roads as their harvesting place due to non- availability of fields to heap their paddy crops. , said Umesh Chandra Singh a farmers’ leader.
“ We used to harvest and winnow our paddy crops on the grazing ground or vacant land in our villages. But many persons constructed schools , colleges and other institutions over the grazing and harvesting lands . Now we have no permanent space to heap harvested paddy crops for which we are using roads to heap paddy crops , said a farmer Bijay Das of Sujanapur who heaped his paddy crops for the purpose of winnowing on a bridge.
When contacted Ranjan Kumar Das the collector of Jajpur said, ‘ It is illegal on the part of the farmers to encroach the roads for winnowing their paddy crops. We will take actions against the persons who are blocking the roads “.