Assam Seed Corporation in Titabor draws a poor picture of the government’s failed initiatives

At a time when the state government run Seed Corporation is running into a tunnel of controversies, the corporation has now turned into a contractor-dependent department with the authorities failing to make the department productive. 

Set up in 1962 on a 90 Bigha land, the Seed Corporation in Titabor’s Cherelipathar in Barhola, now remains in a dilapidated condition with no efforts on the part of the authorities to improve its condition for the welfare of the farmers or the agriculture-dependent families. The condition of Titabor’s Seed Corporation merely highlights the hollow nature of the ruling government's so-called development.

There is no state-of-the-art agricultural equipment in the Seed Corporation of Cherelipathar in Barhola, Titabar, which is set up mainly on vast agricultural land with the aim of producing quality paddy seeds. There is no tractor facility to till the land, there is no artificial irrigation system to handle the drought situation.

Due to the inefficiency of the agriculture department under the state government of Assam, running wholly on contractor dependent corporation authorities, not a single paddy crop was planted on 90 bighas of agricultural land this year, due to non-availability of irrigational sources.

At a time when farmers around the Seed Corporation have finished sowing in the month of Monsoon, it is extremely ridiculous and shocking to know that not even half of the corporation land could be tilled or crops planted due to lack of adequate water.   

Moreover, the wages of labourers working on a temporary basis in the seed corporation have not been paid by the corporation authorities in the last two years.

According to the data, the Barhola corporation authorities are yet to pay Rs 77,000 in 2020-21 and Rs 1,35,800 in 2021-22 for workers' wages.

Angry workers have threatened to vacate the corporation's stores if they are not paid the wages before Durga Puja.