Breach in Lambi minor floods Abohar agri land
Raj Sadosh
Abohar, May 19
Substandard construction work came to fore when a part of the floor bed of the Lambi minor (sub-canal) in Bazidpur Bhoma village washed away during the first trial yesterday.
At least 30-ft wide breach occurred in the sidewall, inundating hundreds of acres of agricultural land close to the interstate border in the Seetogunno sub-tehsil of Abohar subdivision.
The sub-canal originates from Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s constituency and had courted controversies earlier too due to wrong designing.
In the past, water flow used to get blocked often. The canal also feeds Gumjal and other tail-end villages in the Abohar area.
The Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) today submitted a memorandum to Badal at his Sangat Darshan programme in Amarpura village on the Abohar-Hanumangarh stretch of the state highway.
The memorandum stated that nearly 2.5-km length of the floor bed of the Lambi minor (sub-canal) was damaged as the Irrigation Department on Wednesday released 80 cusecs of water on trial basis in the canal having capacity of 280 cusecs.
About 30-ft breach developed in the sidewall, inundating hundreds of acres of land. The BKU demanded that the irrigation executive engineer, who monitored the project, should be suspended and a case be registered against the erring contractors. As farmers in 17 villages could not sow cotton due to 67 days of closure of the canal, compensation at Rs 50,000 per acre should be sanctioned. “We had to purchase water for drinking at Rs 500 per tanker as no alternative arrangements were made to run rural water works,” they told Badal.
The Chief Minister said the damaged part of the canal would be repaired. However, he did not accept the demand for ordering inquiry and left the programme.
Upset over his attitude, farmers started raising slogans against the erring officials and contractors. Officials claimed in the evening that the breach had been plugged.
AAP slams CM for not ordering probe
Abohar: To express solidarity with farmers of Bazidpur Bhoma and other 16 villages who had suffered due to a breach in recently constructed Lambi minor, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders visited the site on Thursday. They criticised the Chief Minister for not ordering an inquiry into visible substandard construction work. Led by RS Phore, President, Bar Association, the activists interacted with farmers who feared that the sand bags used to plug the breach might not sustain 280 cusecs discharge of water. — OC
