Akshay Azad
Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 7: The annual ritualistic exercise of de-silting of Tawi canal is under progress with several hundred tons of garbage mocking at contractors but latter are awaiting the discharge of water on April 12, which will certify the expenditure of Rs. 30-35 Lakhs.
As usual tenders were invited by Irrigation department for de-silting of few stretches of 29 kilometers long Tawi canal, which starts from Harki-Pouri temple in river Tawi and ended up in Ramgarh area of district Samba.
As per the Irrigation department officials, after e-tendering process, de-silting works were awarded to three to four contractors, who are presently pressed men and machinery to clear the de-silting, which is more a ritual only to swallow huge public money as even the de-silted areas are still full of silt and garbage, a shopkeeper of Railway line area, Ramesh Sharma said.
Lashing out at contractors and PHE department officials, he further said, "Look at the portion of canal, which is claimed to be de-silted, and you will find huge piles of silt, garbage, polythenes in the canal but huge funds will be withdrawn for this work, which is actually not done on ground".
Farmer leader, Choudhary Kuldeep said that it was simply a ritual performed by Irrigation department every year but only farmers could narrate the outcome of such ritual.
"De-silting is done on papers only. Accumulation of silt has decreased the capacity of canal and water is not reaching to tail end villages, causing loss", he said, adding that every year several Lakhs was spent on de-silting but the outcome was that canals were dying slow death.
He further alleged that the deep-rooted nexus between officials of Irrigation department and contractors was helping the contractors to shield their skin even after doing de-silting on name-sake.
"On Baisakhi, water will be discharged in all canals and the misdeeds of contractors will vanish", he said. Executive Engineer of Tawi Canal, RC Thapa said that for complete de-silting of canal, they required nearly Rs. 3-4 Crores of funds but due to paucity of funds, de-silting from some critical spots was done. Refuting the allegations, he said that this year they have done de-silting from various spots and even from Trikuta Nagar area, de-silting was done during night hours. Superintendent Engineer KK Mangotra said that he was personally inspecting the de-silting works and this time, a large portion of canal was de-silted. He further said that de-silting work was still in progress and till April 11, it would be complete. |
