Awareness programme held
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, June 16 2015 :
A one-day awareness programme for farmers on 'Participatory Irrigation Management' was held today at the conference hall of Minor Irrigation Department under the aegis of North Eastern Regional Institute of Water and Land Management, Tezpur and MI Department.
Speaking at the inaugural session, MI Chief Engineer L Gourakishore said that there are around 104 River Lift Irrigation (RLI) schemes and around 500 Pick-Up Wire (PUW) schemes in Manipur.
The 104 RLI schemes have been irrigating 25,000 hectares of agricultural land while 31,000 hectares are being irrigated with the help of PUW schemes.
Most of the RLIs and PUWs have been functioning properly even though some of them require repairing.
The Chief Engineer then appealed to all the peasants who have been enjoying benefits of RLIs and PUWs to take care of these schemes as their own properties.
He also expressed strong displeasure over stealing pump-sets of some RLI schemes by some anti-social elements.
If there is leakage in any canal, water users should volunteer to repair the leakage instead of waiting for the Government if the repairing would not cost much.
Gourakishore further appealed to water users' associations/farmers to take full responsibility for RLIs and PUWs .
Basically the main job of MI Department is blocking river course and diverting water to agricultural lands.
The department would be helpless if water volumes of river become too thin, Gourakishore.
The awareness programme also featured a training programme where North Eastern Regional Institute of Water and Land Management Asst Prof Dr UM Hazarika spoke on participatory irrigation management.
Research Associate and course coordinator Dr Ch Victoria presented a paper on roles and functions of water users' associations.