A year on, Malwa canal project still in planning stage

Time of India

2 days ago

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Bathinda: A year after Punjab chief minister
Bhagwant Mann
inspected the site selected for the proposed Malwa Canal at Doda village near Gidderbaha and announced its construction with much fanfare, the project remains in the planning stage.
The process for land acquisition is yet to be put into motion.
The Punjab government had initiated the process for the proposed canal to be constructed parallel to the Rajasthan and Sirhind Feeder canals to provide irrigation facilities in the districts of Ferozepur, Faridkot, and Muktsar. The 149-km-long canal was to be constructed at a cost of Rs 2,300 crore, designed to carry 2,000 cusecs of water and benefit nearly 2 lakh acres of farmland in the Malwa region.
It is to start from the Harike headworks in Ferozepur district.
After the by-election at Gidderbaha was over on Nov 20, 2024, residents of Doda village, Karnail Singh and Baldev Singh, expressed their concerns, stating, "We are asking about progress in the construction of the canal, but there is no one to answer our queries."
Gidderbaha AAP MLA Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon said, "Only recently, I met Punjab water resources department principal secretary Krishan Kumar, who told me that it is still at the planning stage and the land acquisition process has to be taken ahead, and all this may take more time."
by Taboola
by Taboola
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With the villages situated on the tail ends of the Sirhind Feeder canal, which runs parallel to the Rajasthan feeder, not getting adequate canal water supply, the need for constructing a new canal was necessitated. The carrying capacity of the Sirhind feeder went down due to seepage, drawing of water by lift pumps, and no proper repairs for long. When the new canal comes up, the demand for such tail-end villages could be met, the state government had then stated.
The state government was to move towards land acquisition needed for the canal, apart from using Rajasthan government land. Bhagwant Mann, while addressing a public meeting at village Doda, said that it is for the first time after independence that a new canal is being constructed, as no previous government ever thought to provide an adequate quantity of canal water to farmers in the last 77 years.
As the groundwater was withdrawn excessively, most of the blocks turned into dark zones for extracting much more water than recharging, and no stress was made to increase canal water.
There are over 300 lift pumps of the Sirhind Feeder which irrigate the area on the left side of the Rajasthan feeder, originally irrigated by Sirhind Canal system (Abohar Branch Upper and Bathinda Branch) being fed from Ropar Head Works. However, instead of improving the supply of water at the tail portion of the Sirhind canal system, the government a long time back decided to supply water to the area from Sirhind feeder through lift pumps.
Thus, there was a shortage of water from the canal system in Abohar and Fazilka. As a long-term measure to improve irrigation facilities in the area, the government has decided to construct the Malwa Canal.