Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 20: To carry out necessary annual maintenance and renovation work, the main canals of Jammu region will be closed from the midnight of January 25.
A unanimous decision to this effect was taken at a meeting held here today under the chairmanship of Minister for PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control, Sham Lal Sharma and attended by Chief Engineer, Ravi Tawi Irrigation Complex (RTIC), Hem Chander Jerath, Chief Engineer, Irrigation & Flood Control, Sushil Aima, concerned Superintending Engineers, Executive Engineers, besides Members of Kissan Advisory Board, farmers’ leaders and Sarpanchs of different areas.
In order to seek the views of main stakeholders, the Minister convened a meeting of farmers and discussed with them the steps being taken by the Government to finalize the schedule for the renovation of Ranbir Canal, Pratap Canal and Ravi Tawi Canal, without hampering the farming activities. This is for the first time that the Government has taken on board the views of the farmers for deciding the closure and opening of main canals so that the renovation scheduled is drawn up as per the convenience of farming community.
A detailed discussion was held on the overall irrigation scenario and efficiency of canals and their distributaries feeding different stretches. The farmers shared their experience and suggested measures to further improve the efficiency of existing irrigation network to ensure availability of water to the tail end.
The Minister said that it is the endeavour of the Coalition Government to ensure people’s active participation in important decision making and today’s meeting was a step in this direction. He said Government’s prime concern is to safeguard the interests of farmers who are backbone of the society and major contributors to the state GDP. “In case the de-silting completes before the deadline, the Government will have no objection in opening the canals before the schedule”, he assured. He also appealed the farmers to use their influence and motivate commoners to keep the canals neat and clean. The department will also step up awareness campaign to educate the masses about the conservation of the Government assets.
Prominent among the farmers and Kissan Board functionaries who participated in the meeting included, Rajesh Bittoo, D.P. Khajuria, Hem Raj, Ch. Dev Raj, Kulbushan Khajuria, Satish Bharti, Raghnandan and Vinod Kumar.
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