Year on, Malawali farmers yet to get water for irrigation

Amritsar, June 12

Farmers of Malawali village on the outskirts of the city have decided to approach court as they have failed to get canal water. The Irrigation Department has also failed to provide farmers a connection from the canal minor for the supply of water to irrigate their fields.

I have visited the SE’s office and made over a hundred calls to officials to know about the status of our complaint, but they are reluctant to restore water supply to fields. Kuljeet Singh, Malawali village

A Malawali village resident, Kuljeet Singh said, “We fail to understand why the Irrigation Department is reluctant to provide connection from the canal minor despite knowing the fact that farmers need water for irrigating their fields. Farmers have been requesting the department to provide water connection since the last one year, but to no avail.”

Kuljeet said in a complaint filed with the office of Superintending Engineering (SE) in May last year, he had stated: “The ‘mogha’ (a pipe) which is used to supply water to farmers’ fields has not be installed after concrete lining of the canal minor.”

He said, “Since then, I have visited the SE’s office umpteen times and made over a hundred calls to different officials from time to time to know about the status of our complaint. They did admit that there is a ‘mogha’ at the point as per their records, but are still reluctant to restore water supply to fields.” He said recently on residents insistence, the department had installed an outlet pipe in the canal minor, but it did not help in restoring the irrigation channels.

Another resident Gurjeet Singh said, “The entire area though within the MC limits used to be agricultural land. Over the years, private colonisers have purchased land. They have developed residential colonies on the land meant for irrigation channels.”

He said, “Now, the Irrigation Department does not have the teeth to take action against powerful colonisers. We have decided to approach court as the water supply through the canal minor has not been restored.” He said in their village, 400 acres was still under agriculture which required water for irrigation.