Breach in distributary inundates wheat crop

Mukerian/Talwara, December 20

A 15-feet crack developed near Namoli village in the Hajipur distributary starting from Adda barrier of Talwara on Tuesday night. Due to this, about 30 acres of wheat crop in nearby villages got submerged in water. Daler Singh, Sukhram Singh, Dinesh Kumar, Gorav, Akshay Kumar, Prem Kumar and Om Raj who were among the farmers present on the spot told reporters that water had been leaking from the canal embankment for several days. The Canal Department officials were informed but no heed was paid.

With breach in canal embankment taking place, water reached the fields about which the farmers came to know only on Wednesday morning. The inflow of water into the canal was stopped after receiving the information but it still took 4 to 5 hours for the canal to be completely emptied, due to which about 30 acres of wheat crop in Namoli, Bhatoli, Handwal and Ulaha villages was affected. Farmers have demanded from the state government and administration that they should be compensated for the damaged crop and the canal should be completely repaired to improve its dilapidated condition so that people can get relief from the problem of water seeping from its embankments in future.

Canal Department SDO Amardeep Singh said after receiving information about the leakage, water supply in the canal was immediately stopped. He claimed that no complaint was received before this incident. The SDO said under the MGNREGA scheme, the department was to carry out patchwork in the canal after a few days. Due to the breach, water supply had been stopped and it would now be resumed only after the patchwork was done. Employees of the department said they would start the repair work after water supply was completely stopped.