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| Amid peak paddy season, irrigation canals remain dry in Jammu | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, June 30: Amid the present paddy season in Jammu, the irrigation canals running dry are giving sleepless nights to the farmers.
The farmers in Jammu are up in arms against the Irrigation Department for its alleged failure to provide them with the requisite facilities in the peak season.
“The dry irrigation canals are affecting the plantation in more ways than one. We have a separate department tasked to provide us with the irrigation facilities during the crop season. The government has been spending a lot of money on the construction of canals but when we need water, it is nowhere available,” farmers told Early Times.
They said in many areas paddy plantation has been kept on hold due to water scarcity.
Meanwhile, a senior government official when contacted told Early Times that the water supplies in the irrigation canals have got affected recently, however the same is being addressed on priority. “The supplies will be restored in entirety soon,” he added.
Meanwhile, the farmers allege that the ill-planning of the government has put them in distress as the executing agencies aren’t taking the ground situation into consideration due to which the irrigation supplies to the cultivable fields are getting drastically hit.
Pertinently, sections 13 and 14 of the Jammu & Kashmir Irrigation Act, 1978 stipulate that while preparing the irrigation schemes, the estimated cost, realignment of any watercourse or existing water course, the site of the outlet, the particulars of the owners, occupiers and beneficiaries to be benefitted and other person who may be affected is to be set out in the draft scheme. Besides, every irrigation scheme, after its preparation, is to be published so as to invite objections and suggestions within 30 days. After consideration of such objections and suggestions, the scheme shall be approved either as it was originally published or in such modified form as may be considered fit and published.
Furthermore, reports informed that out of the seven major irrigation projects, there was a decrease in revenue receipt of Rs 0.30 crore and Rs 0.05 crore in respect of the Ranbir Canal and Partap Canal respectively, as compared to previous year. The Revenue Receipts of none of the schemes were sufficient to cover even the direct working expenses. After meeting the working expenses and interest charges, the projects suffered a net loss of Rs 3.66 crore (0.79 per cent of the capital outlay). The major loss making projects were the Ranbir Canal, Pratap Canal and Kathua Feeder. |
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