Siraha. More than half of the 433 deep borewells buried for irrigation in the district are yet to come into operation. According to the Agriculture Knowledge Centre, the lack of technical infrastructure, power transformers, pipelines and lack of interest in forming local committees are some of the main reasons why the borewells have not come into operation.

Centre chief Narendra Kumar Mahaseth said 32 of the 54 deep borewells buried in Golbazar municipality, 17 out of 24 in Dhangadhimai municipality, five each in Bhagwanpur and Nawarajpur rural municipalities, 16 out of 28 in Karjanha municipality, three out of five in Bishnupur rural municipality and one out of 10 in Sakhuwanankarapati rural municipality have not come into operation.

Similarly, 10 out of 17 in Bariyarpatti rural municipality, 24 out of 33 in Mirchaiya municipality, 14 out of 15 in Arnama rural municipality, 15 out of 26 in Siraha municipality, one in Kalyanpur, all of 21 in Laxmipur Patari, 10 in Sukhipur and 32 out of 41 in Narha rural municipality have not come into operation. In Lahan Municipality, 13 out of 16 borewells have not come into operation.

“It has been 30 years since deep boring was installed in some municipalities, but so far electrification, pipeline expansion and formation of committees have not been made. That is why the borewells are not in operation,” mahaseth said. The government has declared Madhes as a drought-prone area and announced installation of 500 deep borewells as a long-term solution to irrigation. In Siraha, about 60 per cent of the borewells buried in bagit have not been made operational.

Local farmers and stakeholders say that emphasis should be laid on the operation of borewells installed at the cost of crores of rupees across the district and new installations should be made in the required places as per the government’s announcement.