Nayagarh: Manibhadra Puturia dam project was proposed in Nayagarh with an aim to control flood and facilitating irrigation in 2009. But the fate of this dam project has been stuck in land hurdle since 2011. People in riparian pockets of the Mahanadi and Brutanga villages have been suffering flood devastation every year.
Locals are unsure of the fate of the project and alleged the project has been pushed into cold storage since 2011 due to bottlenecks in land acquisition and shortage of funds.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation of the project January 2, 2009. The dam project was planned for a length of 14 km from Manibhadra hill (under Gania block) to Puturia village in Kishoreprasad panchayat.
Locals said, ”Had the project been executed, several panchayats like Kishoreprasad, Gania, Belapada, Rasang, Chhamudia and Badasilinga would have been protected against devastating floods every year.”
They lamented that a plaque set up during the foundation laying ceremony always reminds them of the project.
Owing to floods from the Mahanadi and Brutanga rivers, people in scores of villages in Rasanga, Chhudia and Badasilanga panchayats have to face unprecedented miseries as they remain cut off from the rest of the world for days together. Crops are completely damaged.
People have long been demanding a dam to control floods in the area.
After repeated agitations by local people, construction work of the dam project started. Work over an 8-km stretch of the dam has been completed while the remaining part of the project has been abandoned as the land acquisition faced much trouble. It could not be carried forward, they lamented.
As for the ill-fated project, executive engineer of the Nayagarh water resources division Rajendra Kumar Mishra and assistant executive engineer of the Dasapalla water resources division Rabindranath Sethi said the work of the ambitious project was actually started in 2008 and was to be completed in 2013.
“Locals agreed to spare their land for the project, but later some people did not cooperate in this issue. The land acquisition could not be carried forward. By this time, the timeline of the project funded by NABARD had expired. The work could not be completed,” they added.
They also pointed out, ”In this condition, we are often told about resumption of the project work, but the main problem is shortage of funds. If land is acquired, the project work will be resumed easily. The department has apprised the government about the situation and further funds.”
PNN
