Vegetation growth at canals blocks water flow

JAGATSINGHPUR: Growth of vegetation at branch canals under the Command Area Development Authority (CADA) has affected supply of irrigation water to farm lands across the district.
The situation has worsened as the branch canals of CADA were not cleaned before the onset of monsoon. Supply of irrigation water through such canals has been severely affected due to growth of bushes and weeds as a result of which sowing and transplanting of paddy crop in different blocks such as Kujang, Tirtol, Balikuda, Naugaon, Raghunathpur, Biridi and Jagatsinghpur have been hit.

Machgaon and Taldanda canals have been blocked due to the growth of bushes as a result of which less quantity of water is being supplied to agricultural land. Official sources said out of 1,08,751 hectares of land, 73,955 hectares are irrigated by water from Machgaon Taldanda canals while the rest 30,380 hectares of land is rain fed. Despite normal rainfall in July, there has been little progress in sowing and transplanting of paddy as there is no provision to conserve rainwater for irrigation. The rainwater is released through a drainage system.

The aim of the District Irrigation Plan (DIP) under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), prepared in 2016 for creation, development of water resources, strengthening of water distribution network and to increase water use efficiency in the district to enhance agriculture production has proved meaningless due to negligence of officials, sub-standard renovation work and non-cleaning of CADA and branch canals.

The branch canals Nos 19, 19E, 19B, 19A2 of Machgaon main canal under Allipingal sub-division and other CADA canals have now turned into bushes. Farmers of five panchayats, Gajrajpur, Sikhar, Nugaon, Rohia and Bachalo, are the worst affected.Meanwhile, assistant engineer, Allipingal sub-division, Sangram Keshari Nayak said it is the responsibility of pani panchayats to clean the CADA canals.