Villagers clean canal as authorities look other way in Odisha

Contacted, Balimela-based superintending engineer of Potteru Irrigation Division Abhiram Beuria said he was not aware of the silting of the waterway.
Villagers cleaning Potteru canal on Thursday | Express
Villagers cleaning Potteru canal on Thursday | Express

MALKANGIRI: With irrigation authorities reportedly not paying heed to their requests to clean the Potteru main canal, farmers of Mandapalli, Chitrangpalli and Badli panchayats in Kalimela block picked up shovels and did what was required to revive the mud-filled waterway and ensure that water reaches their agriculture fields ahead of the rabi season.

Hundreds of farmers from 10 villages assembled near the canal at MV-54 with spades, shovels and other tools and cleaned the entire stretch of the waterway passing through the three panchayats. The villagers even hired an excavator to clean the canal stretch which had a heavy deposition of silt. For this, they collected funds from each household in the three panchayats.

After toiling for the entire day, the villagers managed to clean the canal. Happiness writ large on their faces as water gushed towards the tail end of the panchayats. Pabitra Das of MV-54 said villagers took the matter into their own hands as they were already reeling under deficit rainfall.

“We cleaned the canal to prepare our agriculture fields for the upcoming rabi crop,” he said.

Muka Kabasi, a farmer of Badli panchayat, said villagers had drawn the attention of Potteru irrigation authorities towards the condition of the canal which was filled with mud and silt.

“Due to silting of the canal, water failed to reach around 500 hectare of farmland in the three panchayats. However, the authorities did not pay any heed to our pleas,” he claimed.

Contacted, Balimela-based superintending engineer of Potteru Irrigation Division Abhiram Beuria said he was not aware of the silting of the waterway. “Nobody brought this to my notice.

The rains led to the accumulation of sediments in the 58-km-long stretch of Tamasa canal, a branch of Potteru main canal. Our engineers visited the site on the day and payment will be made to the farmers who cleaned the canal stretch,” Beuria added.

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