the goan I network
VALPOI
Amid tall claims to promote agriculture in the State, farmers and their crops have been left high and dry in Sattari taluka and officials of the Water Resources Department (WRD) have been accused of neglecting and failing to maintain the Bhandaras along the Velus river.
The situation is such that almost all Bhandaras constructed along the Velus river in Sattari taluka have dried up, depriving crops of water supply.
According to local farmers, Bandharas constructed by the WRD have been neglected and there has been no maintenance since the last 10 years. The Bhandara gates and pillars have developed cracks and have been unable to store water.
Farmers in the area claim to have raised these concerns with WRD officials, but complain that the WRD has not been serious about the urgent need to repair the Bandharas.
“In the absence of timely maintenance, these Bandharas have been unable to store water,” lamented a farmer.
“The government has spent crores of rupees to built these Bhandaras and also to supply water to boost agriculture in the area. The aim had been to cultivate hundreds of hectares of land which were earlier lying fallow.”
“However, due to negligence of the WRD, the Bhandaras along the Velus river have dried up and it is difficult to get water for our crops,” the farmer said.
Another farmer said while the WRD had constructed a lift irrigation scheme to supply water for agricultural development, all lift irrigation schemes had presently come to a halt due to unavailability of water.
Speaking to reporters, Thane-based farmer Fati Gaonkar said this was his first experience in the last 10 years to have found the Bhandaras totally dried up. “This is because of negligence by departments concerned to undertake maintenance of the Bhandaras constructed along the river and proper water management.”
“Steel plates used to close the Bandhara gates are in a bad condition and water has been flowing through these damaged plates. As a result, water cannot be stored properly and this has severely affected the lift irrigation scheme,” said Fati Gaonkar.
Another farmer, Dasharath Gaonkar from Pal-Sattari said agriculture which is dependent on water from the Velus river has been badly hit.
“Water supply has been stopped since the last one month and many crops are drying up, due to which agriculture production is totally affected,” he said.
“Frequent demands have been made to authorities to de-silt the Bhandaras and to undertake repair work, but they are not serious about our demands,” Dasharath
Gaonkar added.
