Minister for PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control Sham Lal Choudhary today said the government is taking every necessary step to augment irrigation facilities and maintain adequate water discharge in the canals during Kharif season.He said that focus is being laid on improving agricultural productivity to empower farmers and raise their living standards. This can only be achieved if the famers get adequate supply of water for irrigation purposes, he asserted.The Minster was speaking after releasing water in Tawi Canal from Tawi Pump House near Hari Ki Paudi. Chief Engineer, Ravi-Tawi Irrigation Complex H C Jerath and other senior officers of the department were present on the occasion.The Minister directed the officers to properly monitor the flow of water in the canal and its distributaries to ensure that supply reaches to the tail end of the canal without any hindrance. He also instructed them to maintain cleanliness in and around I&FC establishments and properly maintain registers and tour diaries.
The Minister informed that the canal was closed for almost two months for carrying out annual de-silting and maintenance works of the pumping machinery to ensure that each and every agricultural field gets enough water for irrigation.Pertinent to mention that the Tawi Canal having a distribution network of 175 km and discharge carrying capacity of 300 cusecs provides water for irrigation to 12,880 hectares of farm land in kandi belt on the either side of Jammu-Samba National Highway.The water from the canal is provided for irrigation purposes through a distribution network of 11 Distributaries (D-1 to D-11) that carry water to Malshah, Ramgarh and various border villages.In the initial reach up to Balole Nallah, the length of canal is approximately 9.7 km which passes through Gorkha Nagar, Railway Station, Trikuta Nagar and Kunjwani. For providing sufficient water for irrigation to far-off areas, water is also supplemented in distributaries D-10 and D-11 through Ravi Canal.