Irrigation officials struggle to dewater agri land in Rohtak

Ravinder Saini

Rohtak, December 12

Under pressure by the state government’s directives for removing stagnant water from the fields at the earliest, local officials of the Irrigation Department are struggling to dewater over 300 acres of agricultural land in 10 villages of the district, following high subsoil water level. The ground water comes up as soon as the stagnant water is drained out from there.

Farmers won’t be able to sow wheat

Owners of the land will not be able to sow wheat crop this season as the land will now absorb the water on its own and it will take time, while the cultivation season for the wheat crop has reached its last stage.

Owners of the land will not be able to sow wheat crop this season as the land will now absorb the water on its own and it will take time, while the cultivation season for the wheat crop has reached its last stage. Irrigation officials have sent a report about the situation to the state authorities and urged it to take further steps to dewater such lands, said sources.

They said in Sundana, Kabulpur, Kultana, Ritoli, Kahni, Basantpur, Makrauli Kalan, Bhaiyapur and Makrauli Khurd villages, 3 inch to 1.5 feet water is still accumulated, leaving their land owners high and dry. The Irrigation Department, in its report, has blamed persistent sowing of paddy crop for many years.

Notably, unseasonal rain in September lashed the region, leading to waterlogging on thousands of acres of agricultural land in a large number of villages. The water was removed in a majority of the villages before the beginning of sowing season for wheat but the water remained stagnant in over 20 villages, forcing the land owner to raise the issue prominently as they were unable to sow wheat crop due to waterlogging.

Taking a serious view of the prevailing situation, the state government had, last week, directed all executive engineers of the Irrigation Department to drain out accumulated rain water in all districts within a week so that the affected farmers could sow wheat and other crops. The Superintending Engineers of the department were also asked to submit a report regarding the ground reality of accumulation of water in their area concerned.

“The high level of sub-surface saline water in many villages has become a challenge for us as the waterlogging over 300 acres persists even after the dewatering process. The problem is increasing day by day due to the sowing of paddy crop,” said Rajesh Bhardwaj, Executive Engineer (Technical), Irrigation, adding that a report in this respect had been sent to the state authorities.