Naxal districts worst-hit in irrigation facilities in Chhattisgarh

        Raipur, July 21, 2008: Although nearly 80 per cent of the populations of Chhattisgarh are dependent on agriculture, but on the irrigation front, the naxal hit districts are the worst affected in taking the canal water to the paddy field.

         During its rule the BJP government had added 2,06,984 hectare into the fold of irrigated lands in the state taking the irrigation percentage to 30.76 per cent in the state, Irrigation Department officials said today.

            After the Congress rule, on April 1, 2004 the state had 15,51,595 hectare irrigated land and during over four years of Raman rule 2,06,984 hectare lands were added taking the total irrigated land to 17,58,579 hectare as on March 1, 2008, they said.

            The latest data compiled on irrigation revealed that the naxal infested districts of Chhattisgarh are the worst hit in irrigation as Bijapur district was the lowest in irrigation percentage in the state with a meager 6.42 per cent and just above that was another naxal district Narayanpur with 6.81 per cent, official sources told the ChhattisgarhTopNews.

            Maoists den and Andhra Pradesh and Orissa bordered areas like in Bastar district the irrigation percentage is 7.07 per cent, where as in Dantewada it is 7.97 per cent.

            Other naxal-hit districts like Sarguja, bordering Jharkhand, had 12.45 per cent irrigation facilities, Jashpur had 10.56 per cent, Kawardha has 19.58 where as Rajnandgaon had 25 per cent and Korba with 16.97 per cent irrigation facilities, the officials said.

      However, non-naxal districts like Raipur has 47.74 per cent Dhamtari (51.18 per cent), Bilaspur (31.70per cent) and Raigarh with 21.07 per cent, they added.