Nabarangpur: The government made a provision for irrigating hectares of farmland by taking water from the Kusumjhar reservoir in Nabarangpur.
However, water has failed to cover farmland at the tail end of the canal. This has left hundreds of farmers at the downstream worried. Distressed farmers have warned of intensifying their agitation.
Farmers even staged protests before the local irrigation office Wednesday demanding immediate resolution of their problem.
With monsoon playing truant, agricultural activities in many parts of the state have been affected. Farmers have demanded that the administration take immediate steps so that the reservoir’s water reaches all downstream areas.
According to reports, when the reservoir was built, the minor irrigation department had set a target to provide irrigation to 750 acres.
However, over the years, the reservoir continued to lose its retention capacity due to various reasons – lack of renovation and siltation. Its coverage has come down to 425 hectares now.
Earlier, the canal was looked after by Pani panchayat and after 2014, the minor irrigation department took over its maintenance and repair, apart from water release operation.
“At present, the area does not receive sufficient rain during monsoon. We are unable to carry forward our agriculture work. On the other hand, farmers at the upper end close the gates of the canal. We at the tail end have little water for irrigation,” some famers lamented.
They alleged that this problem happens as staff of the minor irrigation department help large farmers in checking the water in the upper end.
“Agriculture is our main stay. If water is not made available to us how can agriculture sustain in the tail end area. Another problem is that deep bore wells are not allowed in the irrigated areas,” they added.
Farmers like Rajendra Tripathy, Lingaraj Randhari, Parausram Sahani, Balaram Bhatara and Iswar Bhatara said farmlands have cracked for lack of water while paddy saplings have wilted.
The saplings need water at this time. At this time, if the department doesn’t make provision of water to the tail end areas, farmers will agitate and gherao the office, they stated.
When contacted, assistant engineer Pradipta Nisika assured immediate step for release of reservoir water to the area.
PNN