Rise in Beas water level leads to flooding of Mand area fields

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Tarn Taran, July 7

Increasing water level in the Beas river for the last four days has inundated crop in thousands of acres of land in the Mand area of Tarn Taran district. Farmers in the affected villages had sown paddy recently which has been washed away causing great loss to them.

Two groups of farmer unions visited the affected area today and took note of the administration’s lapse in not visiting the affected farmers.

Kanwalpreet Singh Pannu, state president of Kisan Sangharsh Committee, Punjab said that the farmers of Mundapind, Gujjarpura, Gharka, Karmunwala, Chamba Kalan, Dhunn Dhai Wala and Kirian were among those affected. The farmer leaders said that water in the Beas river had risen after the rains as Punjab had increased the supply of canal water to Rajasthan. The pool in front of the Hari ke Pattan barrage needed storage of river water to increase the supply to Rajasthan. The stored water was affecting the crops in these villages.

Mandeep Singh, Sarpanch of Gharka village, said that his paddy crop sown in 30 acres had been washed away. Similar was the condition of 50 acres of crop of farmer Avtar Singh of Gujlarpura, 15 acres of Lakhwant Singh of Mundapind, 15 acres of Karam Singh of Kambo Dhai Wala, crop in 32 acres of Lakhwinder Singh, Gurpreet Singh and Balraj Singh.

This is the area where the farmers of Gharka, Kambo Dhai Wala, Dhunn Dhai Wala and Chamba Kalan villages had offered the state government to purchase their land situated in the Mand area. Master Dalbir Singh Chamba Kalan, Gurnam Singh Dhunn, Sarpanch of Uppal Jagtar Singh, Pargat Singh Chamba Kalan, Jagroop Singh, Kulwinder Singh, Paramjit Singh Jalalka and others said that the farmers of these four villages had been making the offer to the state government for the last three decades to purchase their land.

The farmers said that they had been facing loss of crops twice a year because of which they had been demanding regular compensation whenever water level went up in the Beas. They demanded a permanent solution to the frequent crop damage. The farmers of the Mand area located close to Beas river are up in arms after river water entered their fields. They claimed that more than 5,000 acres in these villages witnessed accumulation of river water after the recent rains.

The Deputy Commissioner, Baldeep Kaur, could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.