Neeraj BaliChandigarh, June 30 -- Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann announced an ambitious plan to lay another 7,000 kilometres of canal pipelines by the end of this year, promising to extend canal irrigation to every agricultural field in the state. However, even as the government projected major gains in irrigation infrastructure, farmers and residents across several districts complained of prolonged power outages and inadequate electricity supply during the peak paddy season.
Addressing a 'Lok Milni' programme in Moga district, Mann said the state government had already laid nearly 14,000 kilometres of irrigation pipelines over the past four years and ensured canal water reached around 80 per cent of Punjab's cultivable land. He...