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After the directives of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to provide canal water to the farmers, the farmers of the state got canal water after decades. For the first time in their lives, the new generation of farmers saw nature’s bounty irrigating their fields with canal water. This was said by Water Resources Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hair during a press conference at Punjab Bhavan here today.
Mit Hare supported all the officials and employees of his department for the historic work of canal water and said that strengthening the canal water network is the main need of the hour to save the agriculture and ground water of the state. He said that where the farmers are getting canal water for the first time, canal water was provided to them ahead of time on the demand of the farmers.
Meet Hare further said that out of 15741 irrigation ditches closed in the state due to non-availability of canal water for the last several decades, 13471 ditches were restored by the Water Resources Department during the last two and a half months. Now, out of total 47000 khalans in Punjab, only 2270 khalans remain to be restored, on which the work is also going on at war level.
He said that due to non-availability of canal water for a long time, these gaps were closed and leveled by the people. In order to restore the vacancies, the government issued a notification and gave them official status instead of community vacancies. Apart from this, the condition of repairing the gaps was abolished only after 25 years.
The Water Resources Minister said that the department has restored these closed drains at a cost of Rs 200 crore through Magnarega. Similarly unused funds were utilised. More than 20 percent of the canals in Punjab are running beyond their capacity due to which sufficient water is also reaching the tails.
Increased capacity of Bhakra Main Line, Bist Doab Canal and Upper Doab Canal. He said that they are continuously inspecting the canals from Patwari to Axion of the department to ensure that canal water reaches the farmers. He said that till last year in Punjab, only 21 percent irrigation was done with canal water while the remaining 79 percent was done with groundwater. The new initiative will significantly increase the area irrigated with canal water.
Meet Hare further said that by taking another big step by the department, the cases of canal water disputes which have been pending for a long time were resolved quickly. In one year, 4700 new cases of disputes came up while 5016 cases have been solved by the department in which the backlog has also been removed. Now only 1563 cases are pending which will also be resolved soon.
Giving information about the works being done to deal with the possible threat of floods in the monsoon season, Meet Hare said that the department has completed 318 flood prevention works at a cost of Rs 89.10 crore before the season started.
Among them, where 193 drain cleaning works were completed with Rs 39.53 crore, 75 different flood prevention works were done with Rs 46.43 crore. Similarly, five big machines were purchased by the department at a cost of 3.15 crores which are cleaning the drains. He said that with this, the department will now clean the drains throughout the year.
The post Farmers got canal water after decades on CM Mann’s instructions: Meet Hare appeared first on On Air 13.
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