Farmers express gratitude to Irrigation department, DC, ADDC, AEE, others

Hajin: Days after Kashmir Reader highlighted the issue, the Irrigation department has taken up the work of desilting the canals in the Hajin area of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
The farmers of Hajin and its adjoining areas on Tuesday expressed their gratitude to the Irrigation department for starting the desilting of key irrigation canals in the area.
Talking to Kashmir Reader, a senior citizen Noor Mohammad Shah said, “We are thankful to the district administration Bandipora in general and the Executive Engineer Irrigation department in particular for starting the cleaning of irrigation canals after more than 13 years.”
He said due to the accumulation of silt, the flow of water was reduced as these canals were never cleaned for the past thirteen years. “This was a long-pending demand of the farmers to carry desilting of vital irrigation canals in the area which irrigate the water to our agriculture fields,” he said.
The locals expressed happiness over the development and thanked Kashmir Reader for highlighting their genuine issues.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Irrigation and Flood Control Department had failed to desilt the irrigation canals in the area for the last 13 years due to which the people were forced to desilt the canals on their own last year.
Locals said that every time they were told that once the paddy season gets over, they will start the desilting process, but it never happened. The Bonikhan irrigation canal is the only source of irrigating fields in Hajin.
The silt had accumulated in these canals which was obstructing the free flow of water.
The locals also expressed gratitude to DC Bandipora, ADDC Bandipora, Chief Engineer Irrigation and Flood Control department, Executive Engineer Irrigation department, AEE and all employees of the department for fulfilling their long-pending demand.

GOWHAR MAQBOOL