Jeypore: A bleak future stared at farmers as hundreds of hectares of farmland were left sand cast following a breach in the dyke of the main canal at Dumuraguda in Ganga panchayat under this block in Koraput district, Saturday evening.
The incident came as a bolt from the blue for the farmers who were reeling under the impact of Covid-19. All their crops were destroyed. The water is supplied to the canal from the Kolab irrigation project.
The incident has come at a time when farmers were midway into their cultivation following relaxation in lockdown norms. They now ponder over how to repay the loans which they had taken for cultivation.
The whole area appeared like a river with the canal water submerging large tracts of farmland.
Holding the departmental officials responsible for the incident, the farmers have demanded the government to intervene and compensate them for the loss.
The dyke collapsed Saturday evening but water is still gushing out of the canal and flowing on the farmland.
On being informed, officials concerned rushed to the spot and closed down the main gate of the canal but that failed to make any impact. The farmers also tried to close the breach in the dyke but in vain.
In the absence of monsoon rain, the farmers were planting saplings and beushening their crops with the help of canal water but that too became a bane for them following the breach in the canal, Saturday.
Bighneswar Nayak, an irrigation department official, said lack of funds has stalled the repair work of the canal.
PNN