Nabarangpur farmers endure bitter cold outside banks to open accounts for subsidised borewells

Three branches of Union Bank in Nabarangpur district are witnessing an unprecedented rush of farmers who queued up in front of them to open accounts for availing subsidised borewells.

There are only three branches of Union Bank in the entire Nabarangpur district; one at Umerkote and two others at Nabarangpur town.

Call it government apathy or indifference, the Department of Water Resources has made provisions for the farmers to avail subsidised borewells for lift irrigation projects under the Biju Krishak Vikash Yojana only in the Union Bank of India.

And as the scheme can be availed only through online, farmers queue up in large numbers at the Union Bank branches to open their accounts. Other farmers who already have their accounts in the bank are also queuing up to deposit their share of the borewell to avail the same.

On the top of that, the scheme which started on December 4 has a deadline of December 16, forcing the farmers to scramble to the banks in huge numbers.

“We have come here since 3am. The government has made provisions of this scheme only in Union Bank. So we are forced to come here from far away. We want the deadline to be extended too,” said a beneficiary queueing up in front of the bank.

“I have come from Jharigaon block. It is around 50km from Nabarangpur town. We have only three branches of Union Bank in Nabarangpur district. It would have been far easier for us if the government had made the provisions in other Nationalised bank including the SBI as well,” said another farmer.

An initial outlay of Rs 300 crore has been proposed by the State government to spend during 2023-24 under the scheme with a target to install 20,000 deep bore wells this year.

As per the scheme, the government will provide assistance up to 80% of the estimated capital cost and Pani Panchayat will contribute the rest 20% of the cost.

In case of tribal sub-plan areas and KBK districts, the assistance has been raised to 90% of the capital cost.