Bathinda: Lacking water, farmers fill up canal with sand

BATHINDA: Angry over not getting canal water for irrigation, farmers of Kotfatta, Kotbhara and Ramgarh Bhundar villages in Maur subdivision of Bathinda district on Friday filled Bhai Bakhtaur minor distributary with sand in protest. The farmers say the distributary is of no use when they are not getting water from it. They have threatened to oppose any political leader visiting these villages and to block roads.
These villages are situated at the tail of Kotla branch originating from Sirhind feeder canal which gives supplies to Ghuman distributary, from where two minors provide canal water to seven villages in the area. Out of these two, Bhai Bakhtaur minor supplying water to these three villages has not been working for long and farmers have to use agriculture pump sets to extract water.
In Punjab, 73% underground water is used through tubewells for irrigation purposes and in 27% area canal water is used to irrigate the fields.
“Earlier too we have held protests and water resources department officials come and return after making assurances. Now we have decided not to sit back and organise bigger protests and stop entry of political leaders in our villages,” said Ramgarh Bhundar farmer Gurmail Singh and Nachhatar Singh of Kotbhara village.
Water resources department executive engineer Jagmeet Singh said, “The 2km long link channel was constructed and underground pipes laid to supply canal water to these villages. There was some leakage and there is also some scarcity of canal water in the area.”