“Drass”; on hearing this word, things that come to mind are lush green fields with horses among them, natural beauty, green trees, and an abundance of water. But you must be surprised on hearing that two villages of Drass have abandoned their agricultural lands this year because of an acute shortage of irrigation water.

The public in the Lamochan and Sukutiyal villages told to Voice of Ladakh reporter that the streams have dried which were the key source of irrigation and drinking water. As a result, the agricultural land in the two villages of the Drass sub-division has been left unploughed.

According to the public, it is the public representatives to accuse who are not looking after the public issues and concerns. The respondents accused the public representatives of remaining indifferent to the public issues.

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“With the help of Voice of Ladakh, I want to inform the Administration that due to shortage of water we are not irrigating our agricultural land. We belong to a poor village with few Government employees. Agricultural products are our only survival. The halt of irrigation is causing a lot of concern”, said a villager named Shabbir Hussain.

“We have two canals but without water. The public representatives must have a look at us. They claim that they are working, but in reality, we are losing our food grain and there is no one to look after our concerns. We appeal to the administration to make arrangements for irrigation water for us. The agricultural fields have already dead but only vegetables have left that need to be protected on time”, said another villager named Amina Parveen.

“The rich may survive by hook and crook but how the poor would survive. If the administration doesn’t look after our concern, we would be compelled to come on the road along with our children” Amina added.

Taking a strong dig at the public representatives, a female respondent appealed to the UT Administration to resolve their issues as their Sarpanch, BDC Chairperson, and Councillor has not been seen around for a long time.

In a furious satire, she said that the public representatives visit even at night to seek vote; now, to look after their concerns they must come at least in the daytime.

“We are not rich enough to buy everything of daily need as our vegetables in kitchen garden have almost dead. If we don’t feed our cows how we would survive. In the days of the holy month of Ramzan also we managed with the dirty water fetched from hand pump”, she added.

“The key reason for leaving the agricultural land unploughed is the drying of streams which was the main source of irrigation water. In addition, we have an irrigation kul on which probably 8.5 crores have been spent but no water has charged even once. We raised the issue to the Administration who assured us to charge water in the kul in 15 to 20 days. But the promise has not been kept as the promised time is over”, said Altaf Hussain.

“The land is not wed enough to sprout the seeds. The farmers had spread minerals on the agricultural fields hoping to get rainfall, but were disappointed. Even in high elevated areas like Sout water have been made available with the help of lift irrigation, then, why the same can’t be established in our area where the river bed is not so far from the village”, suggested Mohammad Amin.

“The irrigation kul is left incomplete where every year few contractors fill their pocket and leave. We had approached the administration who assured to float a tendering of rupees 3.10 lakh to repair the kul in a period of one week, but no action has been taken yet”, said Altaf Hussain.

“We appeal to the administration to provide us irrigation water in a week period before our trees are dead”, Altaf added.

Few locals believe that the defense on the border is dependent on the agriculture of the area. The horses and ponies that carry goods to the defense personnel on the border are fed from the Agricultural land.

“The life in this area is dependent on agriculture produces from this land. We feed our cattle, cow, and horses that take good to the army on the border. The Administration must have a look at this issue on priority”, said Altaf Hussain.