Salt production in Ganjam may be affected: salt producers

Salt production in Ganjam district of Odisha may be be severely affected this year, if the authorities do not intervene to streamline things in the aftermath of cyclone phailin in October 2013, salt producers feel.

The sea mouth at Purunabandh is closed after Phailin created a sandbar in October, blocking a four-km stretch, salt producers in the district said.

Pump sets, iodization machines and electric transformers were damaged in the cyclone. There was heavy siltation in fields due to rain and floods, they said. Ganjam is the state's major salt-producing district, with maximum production in areas like Ganjam, Humma, Rambha, Surala and Sumandi.
 

There are 43 salt manufacturers, including private entrepreneurs and two salt cooperative societies. Around 15,000 to 20,000 tonne of salt are produced in the district every year, official sources said.

"If the government does not take quick steps to mitigate the problem, salt production will be severely hit," said secretary of Ganjam's salt manufacturing and development association Goutam Polai.

"There is an urgent need for government intervention to help salt producers prepare the ground for production," added secretary, Humma and Binchhanapalli salt producers' cooperative society, Duryodhana Reddy.

Salt superintendent, Humma, H K Agrawala said he has written to collector (Ganjam) Prem Chandra Choudhury to depute experts for resolving the problem.