Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala on Friday said that ‘rice shoot policy’ that allows temporary openings in water channels for irrigating paddy crop has been altered by the ruling BJP-JJP government in Haryana, which would be detrimental to farmers interest.
“It seems that the BJP-JJP government wants to ‘lockout’ the farmers of Kaithal, Jind, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Ambala and Yamunanagar districts by creating obstacles and restrictions for the farming in northern Haryana,” alleged Mr. Surjewala, addressing a video conference.
“The aim of rice shoot policy seems to completely eliminate paddy cultivation in Haryana and hit the farmer hard by snatching away their bread and better,” he added.
Mr. Surjewala said as per conditions in the new policy, no rice shoot would be permitted on any channel in Haryana having discharge of less than 10 cusecs of water. “Rice shoot fees have been increased. Besides, rice shoots will not be provided in the entire Haryana on less than 20 acres of land. There will also be a condition that paddy cannot be planted in more than 15 acres of land out of those 20 acres. The new rice shoots have been completely eliminated in the Bhakra command system with the exception of areas where the Yamuna or Ghaggar river water is available,” he said.
As far as the Western Jamuna canal system is concerned, Mr. Surjewala said that the quantity of water allocated every year for rice shoots in districts like Yamuna Nagar, Karnal, Panipat, Jind and Rohtak would get reduced from existing water share of 25% to 3% by the year 2024. And in districts like Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Hisar, Sirsa, Fatehabad, which are under the Bhakra system, 10% water for the rice shoot would be reduced to 3% by 2024. By years 2020 and 2021, all the existing rice shoots would be removed and the new rice shoots will also be limited to 3%,” he alleged.