The district administration of Chitrakoot and Banda have expressed their inability to provide irrigation water to farmers for rabi crops, saying that there was no water available for irrigation.

The administration has already clamped Section 188 IPC and has issued orders restricting the farmers from drawing water for irrigation purposes from government ponds, wells and reservoirs.

Under Section 188, an authority can direct a person or a group to abstain from certain acts that cause or are likely to cause obstruction, annoyance or injury. The violators can be imprisoned up to a month or pay a fine.

“There is no water left for irrigation. There is only eight feet deep water in Ohan Dam, which is stored for drinking summers,” said KS Lal, executive engineer in the Irrigation Department at Banda.

According to Irrigation Department officials, the dearth of water arose due to faulty implementation of rainwater harvesting and other storage facilities.

“Due to insufficient rain and drawing of water from the canals and ponds, the area is bound to face severe water crisis in summer from March to June, which will badly affect the people and livestock,” said a recent communication from sub-divisional magistrate of Kervi to the district authorities.

So far, the Irrigation Department has released water for the first irrigation session. Rabi crops require irrigation almost seven times.