Water recedes, farmers count losses

Parveen Arora
Tribune News Service
Karnal, August 20

With water in the Yamuna receding, farmers in 36 villages along the river are counting their losses. Water has receded in residential areas of some villages, but a majority of villages are still submerged in water.

Residents are still stuck in their houses. Thousands of acres of paddy, sugarcane, maize and vegetable crops are still waterlogged following increase in water level to 6.5 lakh cusecs on Monday.

Around 11,000 acres — nearly 7,000 acres of paddy, around 3,000 acres of sugarcane, nearly 900 acres of maize and around 100 acres of paddy — got submerged, giving sleepless nights to farmers. They were demanding special ‘girdawari’ to assess the losses.

“I cultivated paddy, but the flood washed away the crop, that led to a huge loss to me,” said Hussain of Sayeed Chapra village.

Rajiv Kumar of Chaugama village had the same story to tell. He said thousands of acres of farmers in villages along the Yamuna were destroyed. “We demand special ‘girdawari’ to assess the loss,” he said.

The sand carried in flood waters covered sugarcane fields. “Sand has destroyed my sugarcane crop. The government should order special ‘girdawari’ on losses,” said Manjeet Singh of Chaugama village.

Shyam Lal, District Revenue Officer, said losses would be assessed after water receded fully. Ravinder Kumar, SDO, Irrigation and Water Resources Department, said the level fell to 2 lakh cusecs on Tuesday afternoon and would reduce further by Wednesday.

The receding of water came as relief for residents of villages which had been cut off. They were able to commute on tractors. Roads were still filled with water.

“We had lost connectivity with Randoli village, connecting us to the main road to the district headquarters. But now, we have got some relief as the water level is down. With the help of tractors, we can commute to other villages,” said Iqbal of Sayeed Chapra village.

Residents of villages where stagnant water had accumulated were facing problems regarding drinking water and essential commodities as they were stranded.

“We are facing shortage of drinking water as we cannot go anywhere to bring water. The authorities have not provided water to us,” said Tehsil Abbas of Japti Chapra village.

Underwater 
7,000 acres of paddy
3,000 acres of sugarcane
900 acres of maize