DIGBOI, Aug 2 - Drought-like conditions prevailing in the entire Margherita subdivision for about two weeks now, has dried up the paddy lands and brought paddy cultivation to a grinding halt. Ploughs are off the fields and the paddy growers of the subdivision are left lamenting their plight without succour.
The paddy growers of Digboi, Margherita and Jagun areas apprehend that if the situation continues so for a week, the plantations already done will go dry particularly in the shallower plots. Everywhere, such plantation areas have become so parched that the plots have developed innumerable cracks on the surface. The planted seedlings are turning russet including those in the beds.
The condition is also beginning to affect the tea plantations of the subdivision. Incidentally, for the marginal paddy growers, their very small tea-plantation holdings become a support in the normal situation. But now that support also appears a distant cry.
