It's drought of weddings in North Karnataka districts!

HUBBALLI: Twenty four year-old Manjunath Byahatti, a farmer of Kurlageri in Nargund taluk of Gadag district, has to put off his wedding owing to severe drought condition.

Though he is engaged to his bride, he is finding it difficult to mobilise funds for the wedding after suffering a loss of crops in because of failure of monsoon for two consecutive years. Besides, he has failed to raise loans as he has already borrowed several lakhs of rupees to undertake sowing operations.

April 2016, is the most auspicious month for wedding and marriage halls are full as they were already booked well in advance in urban areas. The situation, however, is different in rural areas as farmers are struggling to fetch a pot of drinking water.

Several farmers have postponed their wedding till September or October when political bigwigs like BJP leader B Sriramulu sponsor free mass marriages every year as they cannot afford to bear the expenditure owing to the acute drought. Many farmers have deserted their village in search of jobs in urban areas as running the family itself has been a tough challenge for them.

“We have postponed the marriage of my brother as we don't have money. The jowar, cotton crop in our 12 acres of farm land has totally dried up due to failure of monsoon since last two years.

I have also incurred loss of Rs 60,000 and could not repay the loan taken from banks and money lenders for agriculture. We managed to get little yield to meet the needs of our livelihood due to scanty rainfall in June last year.

Early implementation of Kalasa Banduri project will ensure regular flow of water in the canal in our village as there is no enough water in Malaprabha reservoir", says Shankrappa Byahatti, a farmer of Kurlageri village in Gadag district.

In some drought-hit districts of north Karnataka, parents of brides are scouting for grooms who are employed in private companies and government jobs. They hesitate to marry their daughters to farmers as the region is prone to drought every year. "Farmers are finding it tough to find brides as they are debt-ridden.

The parents of the bride consider agriculture as loss making activity and will not perform marriage with groom if he is a farmer. Moreover, increasing number of farmer suicides has caused much anxiety for them" Shankargouda Jayangoudar, Doni villager and former Gram Panchayat member.

No drought like this in state since 1972, says Siddaramaiah
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who toured drought-affected districts of North Karnataka on Saturday, said that the drought the state is facing now is unprecedented since 1972.

“Divisional-level committees headed by senior ministers have been formed to effectively tackle the situation,” he said. Stating that the Bhima river, which flowed through Vijayapura, Kalaburagi and Yadgir districts, has dried up completely, the Chief Minister said he will again write a letter to the Maharashtra government to release 2 tmcft of water to meet the drinking needs of the villages.

“I had asked the Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil to be in touch with Maharashtra, but the neighbouring state replied that their people too were facing a severe water crisis. In view of the demand from the area, I will again appeal to the Maharashtra government to release water,” he said.