Canal water not available for paddy, farmers annoyed

Gurbaxpuri

Tarn Taran, June 16

Though paddy transplantation is in full swing in the district, the non-availability of canal water for paddy fields has become a cause for concern for farmers. The problem seems to persist for many days hence. Paddy sowing was started in the district, falling in Majha sector, from June 14.

In the district, Kasur Branch Lower (KBL) canal is the lifeline of farmers of more than 100 villages. It fulfils the irrigation purpose from Pakhoke to Khemkaran village, a stretch of 100 km.

The cleaning and de-silting of KBL canal and the other distribution system of canal water is at full blast. According to the Irrigation Department, cleaning work cannot be completed in the next 10 days and till that there is no possibility of releasing water into the KBL.

Pargat Singh Jamarai of Jamhoori Kisan Sabha, Satnam Singh Manochahal of the Kisan Majdoor Sangharsh Committee, Punjab, Harjit Singh Ravi, Devinder Sohal, Arsal Singh Sandhu and Surjit Singh Bhura, leaders of different farmer organisations, said here on Thursday that they had approached officials of the department many times to clean the distribution system before the start of the paddy sowing season in the last two months, but all requests fell on deaf ears. As a result, a critical situation has arisen.

The farmer leaders said due to the negligence of the department thousands of farmers of around 100 villages, mostly dependent on the KBL distribution system, were facing hardships due to non-availability of canal water. They said as the work of cleaning the distribution system was going on at a snail’s pace, there was no possibility of water to be released into the canal in the next few days and it would cause a heavy loss to farmers of the area.

Rashminder Singh, SDO of the department, said water would reach the fields just after one day as the repair work was going to be completed on Thursday (today). The leaders said power supply too was not satisfactory in the area as farmers were given just four-hour power supply against the promised eight hours.

The farmer leaders were in no mood to believe the SDO’s claim.

KBL lifeline of farmers of over 100 villages

In the district, Kasur Branch Lower (KBL) canal is the lifeline of farmers of more than 100 villages. It fulfils the irrigation purpose from Pakhoke to Khemkaran village, a stretch of 100 km.