With drought-like situation looming large in the state as most of the districts so far received scanty rainfall, the state government on Friday took a major decision to release water from Pt Ravishankar Shukla Reservoir, Gangrel for Kharif crop.
Minister for Water Resources Ravindra Choubey on Friday instructed the officials to release water in canals from the reservoir from Saturday keeping in view the problem being faced by farmers of the state.
Farmers raised the issue before the minister at a programme at Arang in Raipur district and the minister immediately instructed the concerned officials to release the water.
As per information from Chief Engineer, Mahanadi Project, Raipur there are 344.89 Million Cubic Meter water at Ravishankar Reservoir while the Moorumsili and Dudhawa reservoir were having 51.74 and 108.75 million cubic meter water as on August 16. This is 44.89%, 31.94% and 38.28% of total capicities of these reservoirs, he informed.
From these reservoirs water would be released in canals for districts of Raipur, Dhamtari, Balod and Baloda Bazar-Bhatapara. In these areas around 1100 million cubic meter of water is required for irrigation purpose of around 2.25 lakh hectare of land, he informed.