Koraput: Hundreds of farmers from Jeypore block staged a sit-in at the office of the Upper Kolab Irrigation Project chief construction engineer here on Monday to demand immediate release of water in the canal.

The farmers alleged that standing crops over acres of agricultural land were being damaged in the heat as water had not been released in the canal for the past 20 days.

"We have grown paddy and various types of vegetables in our fields. If water is not released at the earliest, all our standing crops could get damaged in the heat," said Udayanath Mali, a farmer from Ghat Bagra village.

The villagers, under the banner of Bhandara Ghariani Pani Panchayat, locked the chief engineer's office for a few hours and threatened to resort to roadblock on May 5 if their demands were not met.

A villager said hundreds of farmers at Ghat Bagra, Siraguda, Pujariput and Mali Dalaiput villages would be hit if water was not released at the earliest as their agricultural activities solely depended on the canal water released by the irrigation project.

A project official said the shortage of rain and a temporary halt in power generation by the Odisha Hydro Power Generation Corporation from the Kolab reservoir had hit the flow of water in the canal.

"We release water in the canal after power generation. The problem has arisen as power generation has been temporarily stopped. Our officials will visit the villages and assess the situation," said a senior irrigation official of project.

"We will take steps to release water in the canal at the earliest," he added.

The farmers temporarily called off their sit-in at the chief engineer's office after assurances from officials to look into their problems.