Upper Bari canal in shambles, Majha farmers stage protest

Tribune News Service

Manmeet Singh Gill

Amritsar, September 19

Hundreds of farmers from all four districts of the Majha region staged a protest outside the canal department office here on Monday demanding restoration and strengthening of the Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC).

The farmers also demanded a check on industrial units throwing chemical-mixed water in the canal and its distributaries. Holding the protest under the banner of Jamhoori Kisan Sabha, the farmers admitted that one of the reasons for the depleting water table in the state was excessive exploitation of ground reserve.

They complained that nearly two-century old canal irrigation system was in a deplorable condition due to the apathy and indifference of successive state and Center governments.

The UBDC system, in its prime, with seven main branches and 247 distributaries, irrigated 13.5 lakh acres of agricultural land in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur and Pathankot districts. Presently, as it is able to carry only 40 per cent of its sanctioned limit of 9,000 cusecs of water, the agricultural sector has become over dependent on groundwater.

A veteran farmer leader, Rattan Singh Randhawa, said: “Until 90s, there were very less tubewells and irrigation was dependent on canals. Presently most of the canal minor and even distributaries have been encroached upon.” He said there was a dire need for the farmers and government to understand that there would be no agriculture and life without water.

Jamhoori Kisan Sabha president Dr Satnam Singh Ajnala, who is a retried Agriculture Department official, said: “We demand that the sanctioned water capacity of the UBDC be increased to 12,000 cusecs so that people do not have to draw groundwater for irrigation.” He said social, religious and political organisations must come forward to save Punjab by saving its ground reserves of water.

Was built by Shah Jahan in 1693

The Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) was first built by Emperor Shah Jahan in 1693 for carrying water from the Ravi from Madhopur to Lahore. Improvements in the canals were made by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. A weir type headworks, with a properly designed distributaries system was constructed by the Britishers in 1879. At the time of Partition, full supply discharge of the UBDC during kharif season was 6,900 cusecs. The canal system collapsed in the 1990s and despite efforts, the government failed to revive it till date.

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