Chughe kalan (Bathinda), May 1: About 20 hutments were swept away and widespread damage was done to harvested wheat crop yesterday night due to a 60-feet wide breach in the Sirhind canal.Hundreds of acres of land was submerged in two to three deep water. Though the normal life has been disturbed, no loss of life has been reported.According to persons whose mud hutments were demolished, the breach occurred all of a sudden and the flow of water was so fast that most of their belongings were swept away.When this reporter visited the spot this morning, they were searching for their belongings in the waist-high water. Most of the affected persons are labourers who see in this tragedy an inauspicious labour day.An onlooker could see wheat bundles floating in water. The affected farmers blame the irrigation department for it. The authorities in the irrigation department maintained that the breach occurred because the water flow at the point of breach all of a sudden shot up to 400 cusecs.They claimed that the entire department swung into action the moment they heard about the mishap. The flow of water in the canal was reduced and a contractor was hired to fill the breach.Executive Engineer G. S. Sidhu claimed that the breach would be filled by this evening and water would be released back in the canal by tomorrow morning. When asked about the damage, he said the labourers living on the bank of the canal had no right to claim compensation because they had already been served notices to vacate the land. About a month ago, the brickline was repaired near the site of the breach. Congress leader and former president of the Bathinda Municipal Committee Jagroop Singh Gill demanded Rs 10,000 per acre compensation for those whose harvested crop had been damaged because of the breach. Meanwhile, drying up of water would delay the sowing of cotton crop here. The agriculture department has recommended April 15 to May 15 as the most suitable time for sowing of this crop.
