Section 3(3) in The Bihar Irrigation, Flood Management and Drainage Rules, 2003
3.2Water supply. -3.2.1The Sub-divisional Officer and Junior Engineer in-charge shall have special responsibility to get the repair works of all weirs, distributions system, escapes, head sluices, cross regulators and all outlets done as per requirement after getting approval of competent authority and it should be completed in all respect to retain water before release of water in canal so that no water is lost anywhere by leakage or seepage. In addition to this deweeding and desilting of beds of canals and distributaries in the upper reaches, wherever necessary shall be carried out so that there is no problem in smooth supply of water to the fields.3.2.2(a)Under Section 50 (i) of Bihar Irrigation Act, 1997 (Bihar Act 11,1998) the Divisional Canal Officer or any other Officer, authorised by the State Government shall declare for assured irrigable command area and probable irrigable command areas separately to be irrigated by canal water. Generally those areas shall be included in assured irrigable command area, which have been getting irrigation water continuously since last five years. "Probable irrigable command area" means, the area, the irrigation of which is not assured but whose irrigation is subject to the availability of water in that period.(b)Such declaration shall be widely published as per sub-section (2) of Section 50. The name of land owner, plot number and Khesra shall be indicated in the declaration.(c)if any discrepancy in plot No and khesra is found by any land owner he shall inform the same to the Canal Officer through the concerned Junior Engineer for its rectification within a week of such declaration.(d)If any objection regarding the name of land owner, plot no. and khesra is raised, the Canal Officer shall do necessary verification and report the same to the Divisional Canal Officer. The Divisional Canal Officer shall take appropriate action, if he feels the necessity of rectification in the Notification.(e)After declaration by the Section Officer in-charge a map shall be prepared showing assured irrigable command area and probable irrigable command area on village map for each village. Later on, if any alteration in such declared areas is made by Government Notification the same shall also be rectified in the map.3.2.3The Canal Officer shall appraise the water required for irrigation of assured irrigable command area and probable irrigable command area. This appraisement shall be based on the water requirement as per cropping pattern prevalent in the area and timely water distribution management. In addition to this, the discharing capacity of canal shall also be taken care of. After the appraisement of water requirement, the Canal Officer shall prepare weekly water demand for his sub-division.3.2.4The Sub-divisional Officer, after preparing the weekly water demand for his sub-division, shall forward the same to the Sub-divisional Officer-in-charge of the upstream reach. Then this Sub-divisional Officer after compiling the weekly water demand of his Sub-division along with the weekly water demand received from the Sub-divisional Officer in-charge down stream reach, shall forward the same to his upstream counterpart. Thus the complete water demand shall finally reach to the Sub-divisional Officer in-charge of head works. In the process, the last Sub-divisional Officer of a Division before sending weekly water demand to other division shall get the same vetted by his Executive Engineer. For smooth functioning of this process, the role of Executive Engineer and Superintending Engineer shall be to keep control over water demand on the basis of canal capacity, irrigation demand, rainfall, and other local conditions and they give necessary technical directions.3.2.5In case of non-availability of sufficient water at a time and for the economical use of water, the tatil system shall be planned for irrigation and in such situation accordingly water demand shall be prepared keeping this in view.3.2.6Operation manual for canal system shall be prepared project wise/wherein a particular day shall be fixed for presenting water demand, besides other matter by each Subdivision. Similarly a particular day shall be fixed for releasing discharge from head works so that the required water is available at particular place at schedule time as per the water demand.3.2.7The water indent shall be sent in each week, however, in case of excessive rain or drought if decrease or increase of water supply become essential then the contingent indent can be sent directly to the Engineer in-charge of head works through quick communication system like wireless, telephone or special messenger. The Engineer in-charge of head works shall act on that immediately and inform the same to all regulating stations.3.2.8Due to some reason if the discharge in canal is less than the demand it shall be distributed proportionately according to the requirements of different distribution systems or keeping the requirement of some particular area in mind, the Canal Officer can distribute it as per his wisdom. Similarly, in case of excessive discharge in canal, more than its capacity, the excess water shall be discharged into escape channel or if not possible, it shall be regulated by distributing proportionately according to the capacity of different canal systems and such information shall be passed on to the gate operator stationed at down stream regulators through quick service or special messenger, well in advance.3.2.9The Superintending Engineer shall monitor the accounts of flow being made available through a canal/branch canal and area irrigated. The loss of canal discharge shall be estimated by calculating the duty/delta based on total quantity of canal water used for irrigating any area, and for this, specially, Technical Adviser to the Superintending Engineer shall be responsible.
