A breach in a distributary originating from the Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) has flooded 400 acres at Chutala and Jodhpur villages in the area, submerging crops. In this regard, Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, Punjab, leader Sawinder Singh Chutala said that the breach in the distributary occurred around 3 am and as it widened, crops in nearby fields, a poultry and a farm house also got submerged.
Farmer leaders Sawinder Singh Chutala and Tajinderpal Singh Rasoolpur said that this distributary had not been cleaned before the start of the season, which affected the flow of the water. The farmers who came to the spot to inspect the spot asked several questions to Junior Engineer (JE) Kajalpreet Kaur in this regard.
Farmers whose hundreds of acres of crops had been destroyed were a dejected lot. Planted paddy, along with seedlings (paneeri), have been affected. The Irrigation Department’s XEN Dilpreet Singh said that the water removal operations were continuing. He rejected the reports of heavy damage and said that only three to four acres had been affected, while farmer leaders Chutala and Rasoolpur said that around 400 acres had been hit.
Department officer Dilpreet Singh said that they would fill the breach by the evening. The affected farmers of the area have demanded an immediate girdawari.
Deputy Commissioner Rahul said that the 25-foot breach would be plugged by evening and maintained that the affected area was much less than 400 acres as the water flow was only 150 cusecs at the time of breach, which has been stopped upstream since morning.
Meanwhile, the district administration today faced another major embarrassment when another major breach was reported near the main Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) in the afternoon near Tarn Taran. This water is flowing into the adjacent forest area and it is being said that it will soon start flowing towards some fields. So far, no official has inspected the spot.
Farmer leader Chutala said that he had been urging the district administration to strengthen the banks of the canals for a long time, but no one listened to him, and today the canal breached at two places. Despite repeated attempts to contact the department’s executive officer Dilpreet Singh, he did not respond.