Shopian: A vital lift irrigation scheme at Moshwara is lying dysfunctional even after two years of its completion, while hundreds of kanals of fertile kareva horticultural land has dried due to the lack of irrigation facilities, ruining the farmers of half a dozen villages in the area.
The lift irrigation scheme, according to locals, was initiated almost two decades ago. However, even after completion of most of its work, the scheme was never started and the long pending demands of orchardists and other farmers of the area remained unfulfilled.
Adil Hussain, a resident of the area, told Kashmir Reader that in absence of timely rains, most of their apple and fruit trees have dried but the authorities are yet to start the lift irrigation scheme which was completed years ago.
“It (schemes) has everything, be it a generator, a big transformer, a building, and pipelines, but it is not known why the government is delaying to start it,” he said.
Villagers said that hundreds of kanals of horticulture land belonging to the villagers of Moshwara, Brethipora, Kralcheck, Poju and adjoining areas are waiting for irrigation from this scheme.
They said that only a few people have access to irrigation facilities for their orchards, that too after spending thousands of rupees on motors, while the rest lack even that means to irrigate their orchards.
Bashir Ahmad Shah, another local, said that the scheme was first initiated by the PDP and Congress collation in 2002 but it was never made functional, even though the people in the area were suffering due to lack of irrigation facilities.
“In 2019 we were told that this scheme will be functional by March 2020, but it didn’t happen,” Shah said.
Executive Engineer of the Jal Shakti department, Irfan ul Islam, who is also holding charge of district officer for irrigation, said that he will look into this matter.
“Before making any comments, I have to check the details of this project,” he said.

Raashid Hassan