Jammu: Drying Canals Leave Farmers in Misery

Jagtar Singh, a 70-year-old from Jammu, wept and murmured to himself as he raised his shrivelled hand to show his barren and cracked fields. Jagtar owns around 0.5 hectare plot of land on which he cultivates paddy every year – the only source of income to feed his family of eight. As the canal passing through his village has dried up and there is no sign of water, he has resorted to appeasing the rain gods with regular prayers. Every household in the Nai Vasti village, Suchetgarh tehsil, Jammu echoes the same story.

The farmers are accusing the government and administration’s negligence for their current situation. The farmers in the village depend on canals and water pumps to irrigate their fields but since the last few years the water flow to the canals has stopped. Instead of water, canals/waterways are filled with filth, weed, wild grass and plastic water bottles covering its entire stretch till the end of the village.

“The canals have dried up because the irrigation and flood control department has not properly desilted the canals. This apathetic attitude of government as well as the administration is the reason behind our sufferings. For years, we have been appealing to the authorities but there has been no response,” Jagtar Singh said.

The farmers lamented that the majority of distribution canals have not been cleaned and regulated in years, hence, impeding the flow of the water from reaching the villages. “Safai nahi hoti hai yahan, paisa thekedar khaata hai (No cleaning is done, all the money goes to the contractors’ pockets),” said another farmer Ranjeet Singh.

Also read: Elections 2019: Villagers in Rajpora Still Await Clean Water Promised by PDP

In Jammu division, canals and tributaries are responsible for almost 94% of the total irrigation area. The villages in Jammu are irrigated by three main sources – Ranbir, Pratap and Tawi canals. The 60-kilometre long Ranbir canal which originates from the left bank of Chenab at Dumi Malpur village, Akhnoor feeds the largest irrigation area of about 38,608 hectares in Jammu division which  produces high yielding variety of rice, wheat and maize. The 33-kilometre-long Pratap canal starts from the right bank of Chenab at Akhnoor irrigating 9,028 hectares of land.

Agriculture is the predominant revenue generating sector for the state of Jammu and Kashmir. As per the figures, Jammu division contributes to the majority of agricultural land for the cultivation of rice. Out of 15,531 hectares of area under rice production, 49.36% falls in Jammu district followed by 26.6% in Kathua, 11.52% in Udhampur, 5.83% in Rajouri, 3.27% in Doda, and 3.10% in Poonch. Wheat is another major crop with 39.06% cultivation in Jammu followed by Maize, 25.52% production of which is done in Udhampur district. “Our Basmati rice is world famous and is a major export product, hence generating revenue for the state,” Jagtar said.

Not just water, but electricity too

At 8 in the morning, a voice blares from the gurudwara in the Nai Vasti village. The voice appealed the villagers to gather and head towards the electricity department. But there was no response. Ranjeet Singh (50) was the man behind the voice. He said, “As per the department, the electricity cut off time is only two hours everyday but we are witnessing power cuts for over ten hours in a day.”

According to the farmers, with canals dried up they depend on ground water to irrigate their fields with the help of water pumps. “And water pumps require electricity. How can water pumps run without electricity? And see, there is no electricity. Let me give you today’s example, there has been power cut since 8 in the morning and its 2 PM now,” Ranjeet Singh added.

Wearing tattered clothes, Jagir Singh, an ex-army man, is going from house to house asking for labourers. He fears that his labourers have left the village. “Yesterday, my labourers asked me to give them some work so that they can earn a little money to survive else they would leave the village. But when there is no water, no electricity, what work can I assign to the labourers? I told them to wait for the rain and then we can sow the fields. But I fear they have left,” he said anxiously.

For the last 15 days, Jagir leaves the house at 11 in the night, installs his charpoyi in the middle of the field to sleep. “Because of no water. We can’t afford to miss rain. What if rain falls in the middle of the night? Abhi takk fasal tayar hojati hai aur humne abhi takk ugayi bhi nahi hai (usually the crop should be ready for harvesting by now, but this time we have not been able to even sow the seeds)” he said, adding that, “Modi ji bolte hai border pe jawan maar rahey hai, yahan kheton mein bhi marne ki naubat aa gayi hai (Modi says that soldiers are sacrificing their lives at the border, but now the situation has become such people have to die in the fields).”

As per the villagers, the electricity transformer in the village is 15 years old and is not capable of fulfilling the increasing needs of the farmers. One of the villagers says, “When we ask the electricity department, all they say is this is part of load shedding. Is this also our mistake now?”

Modi government – a failure

“Modi ji bolte hai Kisano ko aamir karenge, aesa hai ki Jammu ke kisan ab khud khushi karenge (Modi talks about making farmers rich, but farmers in Jammu want to commit suicide now.),” says Jagtar. Villagers said that there are four government tube wells in the village but none of them work. “Tubewells have been installed for the name sake. Sarkar aur administration corrupt hai yahan ki (The government and administration is corrupt over here.),” he says.

Also read: Suchetgarh: A Border Village Without A Hospital

Farmers expect the BJP government to revamp the irrigation system in the villages before its too late. “We are on the verge of committing suicide. For how long can we afford to live this,” Jagtar said while other farmers nodded their head in unison.