Ferozepur: Canal breach leaves fields inundated

Anirudh Gupta

Ferozepur, June 13

Hundreds of acres of agricultural land was inundated following a 35-foot-long breach in the Bikaner canal near Luthar village on the Ferozepur-Fazilka road, around 8 km from the district headquarters.

As soon as the matter was reported, the district administration swung into action and officials from the canal wing reached the spot and launched an operation to plug the breach with the help of JCB machines.

Deputy Commissioner Rajesh Dhiman said as soon as information was received, instructions were issued to officials of the Irrigation Department and work on plugging the breach was started in no time.

Rajinder Goyal, SDO, Irrigation, said they diverted the flow of the water to the eastern canal, which helped in speedy plugging of the breach in a few hours.

The breach took place as one of the farmers was trying to extract canal water with the help of a pipe. The SDO said action would be taken against the farmer.

Bara Singh, a farmer belonging to Luthar village, said the breach took place around 4 am. “Within a short period of time, the canal water reached the fields and our standing paddy crop was inundated,” said Bara, while lauding the efforts of administration in taking swift action to plug the breach.