Hisar: Farmers in this Haryana district were forced to plug a damaged irrigation channel themselves as water inundated 15 acres of cotton.The breach happened near Sakta Khera village in the Dabwali subdivision on Tuesday and the official response was delayed. The link channel of the Lohgarh Minor, originating from the Moujgarh Head, broke near the property of farmer Hajoor Singh Mann, sending water flooding into surrounding fields and threatening severe crop losses.Disappointed by the absence of senior irrigation department staff, nearby farmers gathered on the site to stack soil and debris against the gap. A lone canal worker was present while farmers worked into the night to stem the flow.“The damage could have been far worse had we not acted immediately,” said local farmer unionist Mitthu Kamboj, who noted the channel had been in disrepair for years.Kamboj said repeated requests to rebuild the channel with reinforced concrete had gone unheeded, warning that aging watercourses across the Dabwali region broke frequently due to poor maintenance.Local agricultural groups are calling on the state govt to survey and rebuild aging irrigation infrastructure before further breaches destroy regional farmland.
