Simulia: The Salandi irrigation project is vital for thousands of hectares of farmland in 17 panchayats under Simulia block in Balasore. Ironically, farmers alleged their land has not been irrigated for a long time, as authorities do not release water citing ongoing repairs.
However, the revenue department is unfailingly collecting crores of rupees from farmers towards water cess even though water is not available to farmlands for irrigation.
This has led to deep discontent among farmers in several panchayats including Andarai and Muruna.
According to reports, water of Hadagada dam in Keonjhar is channelised for irrigation in various parts of Bhadrak and Balasore. The main distributary canal is at Ranital from where water is released through 49 branch canals to different parts.
Farmers say their farmland has been provided water only thrice in the last 10 years, from 2006 to 2016. For lack of repair and maintenance, many canals are now full of silt and wild undergrowth.
A glaring example is the Markona minor canal passing though Bhagia Chhak.
District agriculture officer Surendranath Singh said the irrigation authorities release very little water into the canal during rainy season and do not provide water in rabi season citing repairs. “For want of water, farmers in the area do not show any interest for farming,” he added.
Though farmlands have not been provided water properly in the last ten years, the revenue department has collected over `5.62 crore from farmers.
According to sources in the revenue department, the department has collected `5.62 crore from farmers in the last decade. `60.32 lakh was collected from farmers in 2005-06; `61.90 lakh in 2006-7; `72.72 lakh in 2007-8; and `31.87 lakh in 2015-16.
Deputy director of agriculture Gangadhar Pal said as water is not coming though the canal, agriculture in Simulia area is facing trouble. He had earlier written to higher-ups in this regard.
“Under the excuse of canal repairs, water was released only thrice –in 2006, 2009 and 2015,” the DDA added. Former sarpanch of Andarai Uttam Kumar Mohanty said that the farmland, situated a mere 1km away from the canal, does not get water while about 280 acres of land remained deprived of irrigation. Mohanty said both the tehsil and irrigation officials had then conducted a survey about the problem in 2010-11, but the revenue department still insisted on collection of water cess from farmers. A case has been filed in High Court, he added.
Purusottampur sarpanch Rabindranath Panda said about 200 acres of land in Bamatia, Kakhadapada, Purusottampur, Pithakhiapada, Parbatipur and Chakradharpur are deprived of canal water.
SDO of Salandi irrigation sub-division Nimai Ranjan Nayak, however, claimed 15,195 hectares of land is being irrigated by 49 canals. But he was not aware of which areas are deprived of water.
Tehsildar Jyotirmay Kar said the irrigation department is giving no information about areas deprived of irrigation facilities. “As there was no allegation about irrigation problems between 1998 and 2009, farmers are bound to pay water cess as per law,” he added. PNN
