Jaipur: The state government is on alert in Bikaner and Sriganganagar following the ongoing farmers’ agitation over water. Irrigation minister Rampratap along with its party MLAs reached the affected areas to pacify agitating farmers on Sunday aiming to prevent the Protest snowballing into a major protest.

In Gharsana tehsil of Ganganagar district, a large numbers of farmers will gather on Monday to take part in the protest. Aiming to prevent any untoward incident in the area, the district administration has made arrangements for additional police force along with riot control vehicles in case if protest turns violent.

“Even though water is available, farmers are not getting proper and regular Supply of water for irrigation. In Pong dam, the level of water was up to 1,384 feet in September. Its overall capacity is1,390 feet. They have sufficient water and they are misleading farmers on availability of water. The crops of mustard and wheat will be badly affected,” said Pawan Duggal, who is spearheading the agitation.

He said that in Gharsana, seven farmers had died while agitating in 2004. Now, again farmers are fighting for their rights. They threatened that on Monday they would bring functioning of the administration to a halt. They will march towards government offices.

However, the district administration has clarified that the decision for water regulation was taken in a meeting of a committee which has public representatives as its members.

“The decision for water regulation has been taken as water is not that much available to supply to the farmers. So, there was a need for water regulation. If we supply water as they are demanding, we will be able to supply it till February. In that case, the wheat crops in February will start suffering,” said Anil Gupta, district collector, Bikaner.

State Congress chief Sachin Pilot will visit the area.

“It is our first responsibility to ensure proper supply of water to farmers. There is a committee for water regulation in which MLAs are also part of it and had decided to regulate water supply for some days. At this time, sowing of wheat is taking place. So, we decided to cut down supply of water for some days as it does not require much water,” said Rajendra Bhadu, MLA Suratgarh.

He said that before December 11, the water regulating committee will meet again and decide if the supply of water can be increased.