Samba, May 15: Apni Party Provincial President, Jammu and former minister, S Manjit Singh has been desilting the canals in Ramgarh, Samba ahead of the paddy season.
Addressing a workers’ meeting at Ramgarh, Singh reviewed the party’s work and put forth the strategy to strengthen its roots in the Samba district and its border villages. The meeting was organized by District President Legal Cell, Sahil Bharti, District President, Samba, Raman Thappa, Lovely Mangol, Block President Ramgarh, Bachan Choudhary, and others.
He asked the party leaders to launch a door-to-door campaign and intensify the awareness campaign among the people with regard to the various developmental policies, and programmes of the Apni Party.
In his address, he referred to the issues of the border farmers who suffer because canal water is not reaching the tail-end villages in Ramgarh, and other villages of District Samba.
“The canal is unclean and this becomes an obstruction in the flow of canal water to reach up to the tail-end villages. Therefore, the desilting of canals is a must as the farmers use canal water for irrigation purposes, and paddy season is also approaching. The irrigation department should immediately take necessary steps to desilt the canal up to the villages along the border,” he said.
He said that most of the bore wells of the irrigation department are not functional and the department has also turned a blind eye to the problems of the farmers. “The farmers are left with no option, but to approach the administration. However, their demand to look into the issue of the non-functional bore is not being addressed,” he complained, quoting the concerns of the people.
He said that the farmers have also complained about the unscheduled power cuts in Samba and hence, the water pumps do not work when there is no electricity. However, they are compelled to pay the electricity bills although the electricity supply remains disrupted for hours together, he said.
In the absence of canal water, he said that the farmers in the border belt use bore well water for drinking and irrigation purposes. He appealed to the government to ensure the supply of drinking water through taps in every left-out village of Ramgarh. Similarly, he raised concerns over the developmental issues in villages and poor cleanliness.
