Excelsior Correspondent
ABDULIAN (RS PURA), May 22:Facing a grave shortage of labourers for the Basmati sowing season after drone and artillery attacks by Pakistan following Operation Sindoor, farmers are making urgent appeals for their return to resume agriculture work.
India’s Basmati-rich agriculture fields in RS Pura border belt are deserted, forcing locals to begin paddy work with domestic help.
About 1,000 to 1,500 labourers from various states fled the area along the International Border after the start of Pakistani firing and shelling since May 8.
“We returned home after 10 days. It was a war-like situation due to firing and shelling. We have started agriculture with domestic help. There is a shortage of labourers,” Abdulian village farmer Garmeet Singh said.
As the season for raising Basmati paddy begins in the hamlet located barely 400 metre from the Zero Line, he said they did not want to delay sowing.
As a result, farmers have started the work themselves with help from villagers.
Scores of families were seen engaged in agriculture work in various hamlets along the International Border in the Arnia and the RS Pura sectors.
Like Singh, Skinder Kumar of Gulabgarh Basti close to the International Border has made a call to labourers from Bihar, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan to return and join the agriculture work so that the paddy season is not delayed.
“The firing has stopped. A ceasefire has been announced. Peace has returned. We urge all labourers to return and join us in agriculture activity,” Kumar said.
Kumar, who has begun preparing his fields near the Octerio Border Out Post (BoP) with his tractor alone, also raised the concern of mortar and artillery shells fired by Pakistani troops that sunk into farmlands along the International Border.
“There is also the danger of these unexploded shells. They have claimed the lives of farmers in the past during agriculture activity. But this time, the army is clearing the areas,” he said.
In the three districts of Jammu, Samba and Kathua, about 1.25 lakh hectares of agriculture land falls within Pakistan’s shelling range. Villages such as Treva, Mahashe-de-Kothe, Gulabgarh, Suchetgarh, Abdulian, Chandu Chak, Gharana, Bulla Chak and Korotana Kalan are witnessing agriculture work, with families beginning sowing early in the mornings and evenings as daytime temperatures soar to 45 degrees Celsius.
Avatar Singh of Abdulian village is happy that agriculture has resumed. “I hope labourers will return as most villagers have come back following the restoration of peace.”
“Due to the shortage of labourers and high temperatures, locals are undertaking agriculture work in the mornings and evenings,” he added.
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