LAHORE, April 6 Accusing the army and Rangers of being involved in “blatant water theft”, the Punjab irrigation department has urged the chief minister to “immediately take up the matter at appropriate level”.

In a summary to the provincial chief executive, the department said that water theft by “state agencies greatly undermines its moral authority (to check individual farmers and other influential people involved in the crime)”.

“Water theft has become a serious issue over the past two decades and is seriously affecting canal operations and equitable distribution of water. Theft by influential people at the head-reaches results in water shortage and deprives the poor farmers at the tail of these channels. Against this backdrop, water theft by state agencies robs the department of any moral authority to go after small farmers.”

Citing specific cases, the summary says the army (Corps IV) has a firing range near tail of Abbasia Link Canal (Head Qasimwala in Bahawalpur region). The army has leased out land to private people, called army contractors.

The contractors have laid illegal pipes and they also lift water through pumps. The Rangers have established two unauthorised outlets and the army another three on the same canal.

The army has also installed 15 pipes on Hakra Right Channel. Both agencies (army and Rangers) are thus jointly stealing 356 cusecs of water in Bahawalpur Zone alone.

Similarly, the army and its tenants are repeatedly tampering with 16 outlets on 4L distributary in Okara district. This is in addition to “five unauthorised outlets” on the same distributary. These 21 outlets have made it impossible for the department to ensure equitable distribution of water in the local system.

In Sheikhupura division, the army formations laid 44 pipes on nine different channels of the Upper Chenab Canal (Lahore Zone) during Kharif 2009 and Rabi 2009-10, the summary says.

The departmental efforts to correct the wrongs have met with force. In Bahawalpur zone, a departmental team comprising SDO, canal magistrate, naib tehsildar, SHO (Derwar) and police force went to remove illegal pipes on July 17, 2008. When the team started removing pipes, about 500 armed army contractors gathered there to resist the removal. The local police, however, overpowered them, impounding their weapons and arresting some of them. One illegal outlet was plugged.

Meanwhile, army officials reached the site, ordered the team to stop removing pipes and release contractors. They abused the SDO and took him along. He was released only after the intervention by the superintendent engineer concerned, the summary alleges.

The issue is not merely of water theft, but goes much beyond it and sets dangerous precedents. The army and Rangers formations are using stolen water to irrigate encroached lands. More land is encroached upon every year and more water is required, resulting in still higher incidence of water theft. The land-grabbing and water theft are promoting a culture of rent seeking among the units concerned, the department's summary says.

The water theft by state institutions is creating a dangerous precedent for other users and greatly undermining the irrigation department's legal and moral authority. The matter, therefore, needs to be taken up at the appropriate level with the army and Rangers to stop water theft from the irrigation system, the summary concludes.