Farmers alleged substandard material was used during the canal’s recent concrete reconstruction
13 June, 2026 – Faridkot : Canal breaches at two locations in Faridkot district — one near Jaito and another near Kotkapura — within a span of 16 hours have left thousands of acres of agricultural land inundated, causing heavy losses to standing vegetable and newly planted paddy crops.
In the first incident, a distributory burst near Rameana village on the outskirts of Jaito, flooding over 1,000 acres of farmland and damaging paddy and other crops. Local MLA Amolak Singh rushed to the spot along with administrative officials and took stock of the situation. He ordered an immediate field assessment (girdawari) of the damaged crops and assured farmers that no affected grower would be left without relief.
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The MLA said that the distributory is old and develops breaches almost every year due to mounting water pressure. He added that a government grant had earlier been sanctioned for its reconstruction, but the project remained incomplete after some landowners obtained a court stay, causing the grant to lapse. He said fresh efforts were under way to rebuild the distributory and that construction work was expected to begin in October.
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In the second incident, a minor canal breached for the second consecutive day near Thada village on the outskirts of Kotkapura, submerging over 200 acres of vegetable and paddy fields. The canal had been repaired by a contractor on Friday, following an earlier breach, but collapsed again overnight when a tree fell on it during a storm. Farmers alleged that the irrigation department has yet to cut off the water supply to the canal allowing water to continue pouring into the fields. They warned that nearby residential areas could also be at risk if the situation was not addressed urgently.
Farmers Tejbir Singh and others from Thada village alleged that substandard material was used during the canal’s recent concrete reconstruction, which has already failed at six to seven points. They demanded immediate repairs, supply stoppage and fair compensation, and expressed resentment that no official had visited the site to assess the damage.
The Tribune