‘Narmada water flowing into LRK accidentally, not intentionally’

Times of India: Ahmedabad: Monday, 06 March 2023.
The state government in response to a question by Congress’s Vadgam MLA Jignesh Mevani said that excess Narmada water flows into the Little Rann of Kutch by accident.
The government was replying to Mevani who wanted to know if salt of agariyas (salt pan workers) was being washed away because of Narmada water.
The government reply stated, “Narmada water is not directly released into the Little Rann of Kutch. The water may be flowing in the LRK accidentally.
The government is using the escape operate method to fill lakes, rivulets and rivers with Narmada water and some of this water may accidentally be flowing into the LRK,” stated the reply. The government said that the Narmada, water resources, water supply and kalpsar department is taking measures to prevent salt from being washed away.
In 2021, agariyas and other local workers stayed away from local body elections. The Agariya hit Rakshak Samiti had in 2021 said that salt production had gone down by 40% in the past five years due to flooding of salt pans. Every year, excess water from the Narmada project is released into this area just before salt is harvested, destroying their produce, they had said.
In reply to a question by Rapar MLA Virendrasinh Jadeja, the government said that 608 agariya families were given a subsidy of Rs 16.94 crore to install solar pumps. The government said that in all Rs 29.34 crore was spent on providing solar pumps to agariyas.