Pulwama: Apple growers in Gaberpora village of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district are facing immense hardships due to a damaged irrigation canal passing through a road in the area.
“It takes us days altogether to spray pesticides or irrigate our fields,” said Ghulam Muhammad Bhat, an orchardist.
Pointing at apple orchards sprawling over hundreds of kanal of land, Bhat said that they had to press high-flow water pumps into service to irrigate their fields.
According to various apple growers, the partially-damaged canal was rendered redundant after the authorities carried out the construction work on Pampore-Shopian road as part of the NH 444 project in 2020.
“The pipes got blocked which significantly affected the flow of water,” said a group of growers.
The farmers said that the officials from the National Highway Authority of India then promised them to construct a culvert but nothing was done even after the lapse of more than a year.
Abdul Ahad Bhat, another farmer, said that R& B Pulwama and Shopian submitted an amounting of Rs 2.66 lakh in 2018 to Deputy Commissioner Pulwama for the construction of canal but to nothing happened.
“The R&B department even ferried some concrete pipes to the spot. The construction work, however, was not executed,” said another farmer, adding that the pipes remained dumped in the area for at least two years before the department finally lifted them back.
Executive Engineer, Circle First, Asif Iqbal said that the construction work at the canal was left out of the NH 444 project as no such demand was made by the locals while a team carried a survey of the area before taking up the work on the road.
“Now we have to take up the matter with the higher authorities and seek their approval before carrying out the work,” he said.