Agri produce on roads to separate crops from sheaves causes accidents

Mysore/Mysuru: Every year during December and January, rural roads turn into threshing yards/grounds, with farmers blatantly spreading their agricultural produce, continuing to pose a threat to smooth traffic, which sometimes end up in accidents.

Some of the vehicle owners blame it on the nonchalant attitude of the District Police who wake up only after a tragedy, leaving aside the precautionary measures to be taken to check the recurrence of such unabated practices on public roads by farmers. There is no sign of responsible behaviour at Gram Panchayat (GP) level too by creating awareness among farmers about the violation of traffic rules.

Threshing is the process of loosening the edible part of grain (or other crop) from the husks and straw to which it is attached. It is the step in grain preparation after reaping and before winnowing, which separates the grain from the chaff. Threshing does not, however, remove the bran from the grain.

Common fire incidents

Normally, the months of December and January are considered the season of harvest followed by threshing to remove the dust in rural areas. Owing to the lack of agricultural labourers, farmers prefer to spread harvest on the roads in the morning for the vehicles to pass over to complete the process of threshing without any laborious tasks.

Very often, straw gets entangled with the wheels of the vehicles, sometimes causing them to slip off the road. Motorcyclists face this danger most of the time. There are instances where the straws have caught fire due to the friction between the vehicle tyre and the asphalted road.

The instances of vehicle riders falling off after losing control of the vehicles and skidding upon moving on slippery grains are often being reported. Though complaints have been lodged at Police Stations in this regard, nothing has fructified, regretted Anand, a vehicle rider while speaking to Star of Mysore.

Mainly on the outskirts

It is common to witness farmers involved in such threshing activities in the outskirts of Mysuru, H.D. Kote, Nanjangud, Periyapatna, T. Narasipur, Bannur and Hullahalli roads Devalapura Road, Suttur Road, Srirangapatna and Naganahalli Road, M.C. Hundi, Meghalapura Road, Hadinaru village, Mellahalli, Varakodu, Thanthigulli, Badagalahundi and surrounding areas. Even highways passing by some of the villages are not spared, but the Police are hesitant to rein in such unruly farmers, said motorists.

Earlier, the State Government through Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC) was constructing ‘Kanas’ (threshing grounds) where the farmers were winnowing the grains.

However, owing to substandard works, the threshing grounds gradually turned unfit for use, forcing the farmers to turn to roads with no option left to thresh the yield.

Initiate action and create awareness

 “It is wrong on the part of farmers to take to threshing on roads inconveniencing the vehicle riders. Police should create awareness against such practices through Gram Panchayats and initiate action as per law later.” — Attahalli Devaraj, Farmer leader

“The number of farmers taking to threshing activities on the roads in rural areas is on the rise, subsequently leading to an increase in several accidents involving vehicles. We will create awareness among farmers first.” — Dr. B.N. Nandini, Additional SP, Mysuru

“ Yes, it is wrong that the farmers do threshing on the roads, but they have no other alternative facilities with the Government not coming to their aid. It is better to create awareness among farmers before proceeding towards taking action against them in compliance with the law.”— Kurbur Shanthakumar, President, State Sugarcane Growers Association