Farmers up in arms against ONGC survey

The Hindu
April 30,2018

Paddy farmers of the East Godavari district are up in arms against the “Seismic Data Acquisition” being conducted by the government-owned oil and natural gas major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) as the paddy fields at the harvesting stage are getting damaged.

The data acquisition is going on actively in the villages surrounding Ravulapalem, Alamuru and Mandapeta towns where the paddy harvesting is scheduled for the next fortnight. A surveying agency appointed by the ONGC has deputed 2,000 men from north India for the job. “We are not against the survey but the standing crop is getting trampled by the surveying staff. Since language is the major barrier, they are unable to understand the precautions issued by us to reduce the crop loss,” says Santhi Swaroop, sarpach of Navabupeta village in Alamuru mandal. As part of the survey wiring is done in the fields and bores would be dug at every 40 meters. Once the drilling is over, bombing would be undertaken in the presence of the engineering staff to check the availability of the oil and natural gas reserves underground.

‘Ex gratia will be paid’

“Drilling of 120 to 200 borewells is taking place in each village. We are wondering why the drilling cannot be postponed till the farmers collect the produce,” says Ganni Vishnu, former sarpanch of Penekeru, where the farmers raised a protest.

A senior official from the ONGC, who did not want to be named, says the farmers will be paid ex gratia against crop damage. He says strict orders have been issued to the contractors to pay compensation to all the affected farmers.

“What they will pay is peanuts. There is no system in place to undertake the survey as there is no one to listen to the farmers here. Postponement of the survey could benefit thousands of farmers and save huge quantity of crop,” points out Kovvuri Trinadha Reddy, a farmers’ leader from Ramachandrapuram.

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