Now, thanedar to curb water theft in parched Rajasthan

Jal hi jeevan hain. But in Rajasthan jal... that is water is more precious than life. And in order to save its waste and misuse, a special police station has been created to save the elixir of life. This is the first of its kind in the state and will start functioning very soon in the Nohar block of Hanumangarh district where water from Haryana comes through Sidhmukh canal.

There are water wars and even Bollywood has had its share of films on water politics and shortage. Locks can be seen on gated wells and underground water tanks in desert areas of the state. The northwest districts of Rajasthan like Hanumangarh, Sriganganagar, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Barmer and Jaisalmer get water from Punjab and Haryana through Indira Gandhi and Sidhmukh canals. Canals are open and incidents of water theft are very common in some of these districts especially in Hanumangarh and Sriganganagar.

Big farmers siphon off water from canals to irrigate their farms and farmers of the tail end are left with very little water for irrigation, this situation leads to disputes, confrontation and sometimes violence in the region. Reports say that around 74 cases have been registered in various police stations in the last four years in the region.

Looking at the situation the public representatives of the area demanded a separate police station for cases of water theft. The government has sanctioned one such police station in the Nohar block of Hanuman district. Preeti Jain, the SP of the district said ‘the chakbndi of lands has not been done in this area so disputes of water theft are very high here. Cases were being registered in various police stations according to jurisdiction, but now all such cases of Nohar and Bhadra blocks will be registered here. A separate workforce will investigate these cases and will take necessary measures to control water theft.’