Farmers protest concrete lining of canals in Faridkot

Faridkot, October 27

A large number of farmers and residents of the area on Thursday organised a protest march and staged a demonstration to oppose the concrete lining of Indira Gandhi and Sirhind feeder canals. With flags and banners in their hands, they walked about three kilometres from mini-secretariat to the canals to register their protest.

Under the project, a joint venture of Punjab and Rajasthan Governments, a 10-mm polythene film with cement, mortar and brick tiles will be used to reinforce the lining of the canals to cut water losses.

“If the canals gets concretised, there won’t be any system for the groundwater to get recharged,” said Sandeep Arora, founder of the Society for Environment and Ecological Resources (SEER). SEER is among the many at the forefront of a movement aimed at stopping the proposed project.

Many organisations of farmers, social activists and NGOs have launched a movement to prevent the government from lining the canals with concrete. A large portion of the land in the area gets irrigated indirectly due to seepage through the canals.

SEER estimates that there are thousands of trees along the canal and its branches in the area. “Before ordering the relining there was need to understand the biodiversity of the region and measure the environmental impact of the concretisation project,” sources said.