Jeypore,20th Oct 2025: The government is implementing various schemes to provide irrigation facilities to agricultural land, spending crores of rupees on these efforts. However, irrigation lands are being destroyed due to land mafia. Due to a lack of coordination among departmental officials, irrigated lands are facing destruction. Such a situation is seen in the Kotariput Canal under the Kolab Multipurpose Project.
Land mafias are purchasing agricultural lands and changing their classification. They are converting plots into residential lands and selling them. Large buildings have been constructed on agricultural land. While building houses on those plots, people are filling the canal. Farmers themselves are managing how water will reach their land from the canal. Many farmers in different areas are cleaning the canal to ensure irrigation water supply.
The Water Resources Department and the Tahasil office remain silent despite the issue. Farmers are considering launching a movement.
Under the Kolab Multipurpose Project, it was planned to irrigate 44,500 hectares in the Jaypur, Borigumma, and Kotpad blocks. Arrangements were made to irrigate land through two branches of the main canal. Water on the right side of the canal was supposed to reach Kotpad, and on the left side, through the Padmapur distributary, 1,456 hectares of land were to be irrigated. The Kotariput branch canal is a branch of the Padmapur distributary.
About 50 meters from the head of the main canal near Guletera, the Kotariput branch canal branches off to the left for irrigation purposes. Near Hatishala, the canal crosses National Highway 126 through the Power House Colony road and reaches Panjiaguda.
The Kotariput canal supplies water to 162 hectares of agricultural land in Panjiaguda village located downstream. After the expansion of Jaypur city limits, the land near Power House Chowk has been purchased by mafias who have changed its classification and converted it into plots, selling them as residential lands. Big buildings have been constructed on this agricultural land. While constructing houses on these lands, the canal is being filled.
Currently, many parts of the Kotariput canal are silted. In some places, water supply is blocked due to construction on the canal. Farmers downstream complain that water from the canal is not reaching their fields. After these complaints, engineers from the Water Resources Department have sent letters to the Tahasil office to remove illegal encroachments. The silted canal was temporarily cleaned. However, due to unauthorized encroachments, the canal has become narrow, and water flow has decreased. Water is not reaching the downstream fields.
Since 2012, land classification changes and land mafia activities have led to almost 2.5 km of the canal being encroached upon. A Water Resources Department engineer revealed that the canal was irrigating more than 160 hectares of agricultural land but now only about 30 hectares are being irrigated. According to revenue department surveys, only 15% of the agricultural land is currently irrigated.
Farmers downstream are seen cleaning the canal themselves. Farmer Kalia Dash stated that laborers are paid wages to clean the canal. More than ten letters have been sent by Kolab Headworks Division to the Jaypur Tahasil office requesting removal of encroachments on the Kotariput canal. Farmers’ leaders have demanded an inquiry by officials from the Water Resources and Revenue Departments to remove illegal encroachments and restore irrigation arrangements.
Senior Congress leader and social worker Biren Patnaik has demanded action against officials who helped change land classifications. According to the Water Panchayat rules, farmers are responsible for cleaning the canals by providing their own labor, said cooperative executive engineer Rajani Mishra. There has been no response yet from the Kolab Headworks supervisory engineer.
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