Kendrapara: Hundreds of farmers in Kendrapara vehemently opposed Thursday afternoon a recent decision of Water Resources department in the district that water meant for irrigation purposes will not be released into canals for Rabi crops this year.
A delegation of farmers handed over a memorandum in this regard to Kendrapara Additional District Magistrate (ADM).
On the other hand, problems pertaining to appropriate water resource management in the district have appeared as a prime issue before the partisan and non-partisan candidates contesting in three-tier polls of local-self bodies.
“Local political leaders think about our problems only when an election approaches and forget once the process is over. Around 36,038 hectare of farmlands in high-lying areas in Kendrapara district does not have adequate irrigation facilities. Similarly, inadequate drainage of excess water is a major problem in around 70,333 hectare of farmlands,” a farmer from Kansar village Niranjan Parida and farmer leader Gayadhar Dhal said.
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Out of a total of around 75,818 hectare of cultivable farmlands, 65,032 hectare of farmlands is being shown by the administration as irrigated areas. However, the fact is altogether different, they added.
Kendrapara district has nine blocks out of which Aul, Rajkanika and Rajnagar blocks do not have a single irrigation canal. Odisha government had earlier announced that at least 35 per cent of the farmlands in every block will have irrigation facilities.
Many days have passed since then and the decision has not been implemented in the three blocks of Kendrapara. As a result, youths are turning away their feces from agriculture and migrating to outside the district with a hope to get employment.
A local Right to Information (RTI) activist Pramod Kumar Swain said, “As per the district Agriculture department sources, Mahakalpada block has 28,070 hectare of cultivable farmlands and 6,823 hectare of farmlands alone have irrigation facilities, which means that the total area of irrigated farmlands stand at 24.31 percent.”
Likewise, Rajnagar block has 25,859 hectare of cultivable farmlands and 19.16 per cent of farmlands alone have irrigation facilities. About 33.62 per cent of farmlands in Rajkanika block are irrigated through Lift Irrigation (LI) points and other sources.
A total of 30,681 hectare of farmlands is irrigated through the 1,114 LI points and 3,063 solo tubewells. Moreover, 10,624 hectare of farmlands is irrigated through other sources, the RTI reply stated.
When contacted, Water Resources department executive engineer Prabodh Kumar Rout said, “Development of the canals and creek bridges are underway. The Department has plans to construct more number of creek bridges and barrages on rivers as well. Hence, water is not being released into the canals for the time being.”
It is worth mentioning that Gobari, Jambu, Kendrapara and Pattamundai canals have failed to properly irrigate nearby farmlands as those have become filled with weeds (water hyacinth).
It is said that the crops in about 55 panchayats get damaged every year due to waterlogging during floods. Poor irrigation and drainage facilities have distracted the youngsters from farming.
PNN