Dry canal tail-ends can hope to see irrigation water flow in this season with a little help from the Haryana Police. The Irrigation Department is all set to rope in police personnel in a big way to check water theft when the sowing season gets underway this year even as the Special Task Force (STF), constituted earlier this month, has cracked the whip and registered over 500 FIRs in just one week.
Sources said that though there are eight police stations across the state for registering cases related to power and water theft, the department has now sought a dedicated police force of 150 constables and three Deputy Superintendents of Police to check the rampant water theft since these police stations are essentially focused on power pilferage.
This is in addition to the STF constituted under the chairmanship of Chief Engineer Satbir Singh Kadian with the sole purpose of identifying chronic tail-ends which go without water and also the task of drawing up a “water-theft” map based on the cases registered. “The over 40 dry tail-ends have been reduced to around 25, which present a chronic problem. The STF has been given the task of addressing the problem of these dry tail-ends by rehabilitation of the parent water channel which may have been clogged due to silting or the issue of water theft at the head. They will identify theft-prone areas and will take exhaustive measures to check the crime,” said Additional Chief Secretary, Irrigation, Devender Singh.
Since it is not possible for the STF to curb this theft by itself and the present staff deployed at the eight police stations has its hands full with the theft cases, the department has sought a dedicated staff from the Haryana Police.
Kadian said that the STF had already begun work and conducted massive raids last week after its constitution.
This news has not been edited by Apni Kheti staff but has been published by various news feeds
Source: Tribune India