Gujarat’s farm crisis is set to worsen as Narmada water in 5.5 lakh hectare areas in over a dozen districts in the Narmada command area will be stopped because the government has decided to reserve the water available in the dam only for drinking purpose.
The storage in the Sardar Sarovar dam in Gujarat fell by 45%, the lowest in the last 15 years, mainly due to poor rainfall in the Narmada catchment areas in Madhya Pradesh last monsoon.
Over 10,000 villages, 150 cities and towns in the State are dependent on Narmada to meet their daily requirement of drinking water.
The government’s move to curtail supply of water for irrigation will deprive approximately two lakh farmers of one crop season, aggravating the farm distress that has primarily been caused by lower procurement prices of staple crops like cotton, groundnut and potato.
Recently, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said “there is no water for irrigation hence farmers should not sow winter summer crop.”
Earlier, Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd. (SSNNL) and the State government had announced that due to low level in the Narmada dam, water for irrigation will be stopped by March 15 2018. But now SSNNL, in a public notice, told farmers in Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Botad, Surendranagar that water in Limbdi branch canal will be stopped by February 15.
The government has also asked farmers to remove all pumps and pipelines which are drawing water from the canals.
“The Gujarat government is non-transparent on water allocation of Narmada. The government is still not coming clean on why it allowed releasing water from the dam during and before Gujarat Assembly polls,” farmers’ activist Sagar Rabari told The Hindu .
His outfit Gujarat Khedut Samaj demanded compensation for farmers, who will be deprived of Narmada water for summer crop.
“Rajasthan has been allotted a mere 0.5 MAF of water by the Narmada Control Authority. However, it has already successfully provided irrigation in 2.46 lakh hectares and drinking water to 45 lakh people. The fact that this is possible proves that the Gujarat government and the SSNNL have grossly mismanaged and criminally wasted this precious resource,” he said, asking the State authorities to provide all accounts to the people.
Jolt for BJP
In the recent Assembly polls in Gujarat, the ruling BJP suffered heavy losses in rural areas owing to widespread farm crisis because of lower MSPs of cotton and groundnut.
“This government is anti-farmer. First, they forced farmers to sell their produce at throwaway prices and now asked them not to sow summer crop because there won’t be water supply from Narmada,” said senior Congress legislator Somabhai Patel from Limbadi.
Another Congress legislator and youth leader Alpesh Thakor has threatened to launch a protest march in north Gujarat if water supply is stopped till the crop season is over.
