Police break illegal water pipes drawing water from Narmada canal

AHMEDABAD: On Friday a team of state reserve police and Narmada canal officials have started breaking down "illegal" pipes that are used by farmers to draw water from the Narmada canal in the Tharad-Sanadar section of the canal. Over the past week some 650 such pipes were broke down into three parts.
This has caused concern amongst farmers in that region."Why are they breaking our pipes? They could simply remove them. We were drawing water for our crops. Nowhere have we seen governments acting like this," Bhikha Vaghela of Nagla village.
Another farmer from the village Somabhai Dineshbhai told TOI, "If this water is for drinking purpose then ask people in cities to consume less. If we get a supply of 45 litres a day from the government, people in cities get 200 to 250 litres a day to manage their affairs.
We were borrowing this water for growing food," says Dineshbhai. Sources in Narmada department claim that there are more than 4,000 pipes that are drawing water illegally from various canal stretches in the central and northern part of Gujarat.