Water theft: 37 cases against farmers in Gujarat

The police have registered as many as 37 cases against farmers in different parts of the state for illegally drawing water from Narmada canal, a senior government functionary said today. Most of the cases have been registered in Saurashtra.

Deputy chief minister Nitin Patel told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that strict action is being taken against people drawing water illegally from Narmada canal and branch canals. The canals take Narmada water to water-scarce areas of north Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kutch.

"Thirty-seven FIRs have been registered in such cases in the past few weeks," Patel said after the state cabinet met on a public holiday to discuss scarcity situation and relief measures.

An official said that most of the cases have been registered in Surendranagar, Morbi, and Botad districts. Surendranagar and Morbi had received 42-43% of the average rainfall this year, while Botad received 61%, as against the state's average of 77%.

The state government has been releasing water from Narmada dam to meet irrigation requirement for the past few weeks. Initially, 8,000 cusec water was being pumped into the network, which was increased to 19,920 cusec from November 12. Patel had said that water availability in Narmada dam was adequate to meet drinking water needs till next monsoon, and surplus water was being released for irrigation.

In October, the state government had declared 51 talukas as scarcity-hit, while a Rs1,300 crore package was announced for 45 more talukas, which had received poor rain, last week.