WATER CRISIS MAY HIT 9 DISTRICTS DUE TO DELAY IN CANAL REPAIRS

districts of Rajasthan, reliant on Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyogna (IGNP) for drinking water, may face a crisis as the scheduled repair works are running almost a week late due to protest by farmers in Haryana.

The canal is closed from March 29 to April 25.

Sources said that the farmers near Lohgarh head at Abubshahar village of Sirsa district in Haryana stalled the works saying that the new lining using cement-concrete with high-density polyethene (HDP) will cut water seepage restraining water recharge in their tube wells.

Sources said that the Haryana administration has managed to convince the farmers and the repair works began on Monday.

Chief minister Vasundhara Raje spoke to her Haryana and Punjab counterparts to resolve the long-standing issue.

Bikaner, Sriganganagar, Hanumangarh, Churu, Jaisalmer, Barmer, Jhunjhunu, Nagaur and Jodhpur are the districts dependent on canal water for drinking and agriculture.

Meanwhile, the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) has enforced an oddeven drinking water supply system in Bikaner. Public Health Engineering Department has divided the city into four zones to ensure drinking water supply every alternate day.

Additional chief engineer (PHED) B Krishnan said, “We have to be patient. We have sufficient water reserves and there is need not to panic. To ensure water availability, we have planned an odd-even system.”

According to the water resources department, more than 6,000 villages in nine districts are likely to be hit by water shortage.

The PHED and the district administration claimed water will be supplied once a day in urban areas and once in two days in rural areas and arrangements had been made to store water.

Acting divisional commissioner Anil Gupta said that there would be no shortage of drinking water. “We have stored enough water to meet demand,” he added.

IGNP chief engineer (North) in Hanumangarh K L Jakhar said that water will be stored at several places of the canal to ensure regular drinking water supply to the districts reliant on IGNP system.

“We are working hard to finish the repair works before scheduled. The repair was a prolonged necessity,” he added.

BIKANER:Nine