Rautahat, September 9

Farmers in Gadhimai Municipality of Rautahat today organised a demonstration demanding water for irrigation.

Citing the fact that their paddy crops were dying due to lack of irrigation, irate farmers held their demonstration in their fields.

“Fifteen years after the subsidiary canal of Bagmati Irrigation Project was built, the canal has yet to be put into operation. Our paddy fields are parched for want of rain,” said Rajdev Das, a farmer  of Gadhimai-1, adding that paddy crops planted in some six bigha land were wasting away.

Another farmer Dipen Shrestha also lamented, “They took our land in the name of constructing irrigation canal. So far, they haven’t given us any compensation. On the contrary, even though the canal is ready they don’t release water for us,” he said.

On his part, Bagmati Irrigation Project divisional engineer Akhalakh Siddhaki said the project had taken farmers’ concerns seriously and was working towards addressing them.