A portion of the Narayanpur Left Branch Canal (NLBC), through which around 4.5 lakh hectares of agricultural land in Hunsagi, Shorapur, Shahapur, Jewargi, Sindgi, Indi and other taluks are irrigated, slipped after weak soil in the basement between 61 km and 62 km collapsed near Agni village in Hunsagi taluk of Yadgir district on Tuesday.
Officials have already stopped water flow based on instructions from the Irrigation Consultation Committee (ICC), after the incident occurred.
The ICC will hold a meeting shortly to decide on releasing water from Narayanpur Dam to the fields through NLBC to meet the demand of farmers in irrigated areas as they have yet to harvest paddy, cotton, red chilli and sugarcane crops, which are in need of water as this is an important period to ensure good yield.
“ We need water for at least another 30 days to harvest crops and get a good yield. But, we are now under the threat of shortage of water and withering crops after the incident near Agni village. Officials have so far spent almost a crore of rupees to get repairs done to the canal but they have not found a permanent solution to such repeated incidents,” State Secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh Raghavendra Kamanatagi told The Hindu.
On Tuesday, 80 m of the RCC lining wall of the canal slipped after bed soil collapsed and as a result, a big gap has developed between the edge of the canal and the service road.
Officials took up maintenance work in the canal in 2012 under the Extension, Renovation and Modernisation (ERM) project when it had collapsed in the same area.
“We are sending detailed reports to technical experts who can only take a decision on a permanent solution to this problem. Meanwhile, the work to lay sand-filled bags across the area that has slipped has already been taken up as a temporary initiative to allow water to flow in the canal, if ICC permits to release water from the dam into the canal,” Chief Engineer, KBJNL, Narayanpur, Ashok Vasanad has said.
To a question, he said that laying sand-filled bags in the portion that has slipped is a temporary solution but steps to ensure a permanent solution will be taken as per instructions from technical experts after the rabi season is over.
