Mansa farmers spend on plugging leaks as crores for canals go down the drain
LEFT IN LURCH VB took construction material samples in Aug, no case lodged
MANSA: The pucca water channels (minor canals) laid just over a year ago to irrigate fields in the Malwa region under a ₹950-crore project have started choking and leaking, leaving farmers in the lurch. They now spend from their pockets to get these repaired — or lay cement pipes inside the canals along their walls — to save their crops from inundation, a year after contributing 10% of the project cost.
As HT visited some affected fields of Mansa district, farmers rued that their complaints to the chief minister and the vigilance bureau (VB) have not led to action. VB teams from Bathinda and Chandigarh had inspected some sites and taken samples of the construction material last August, but no case has so far been registered.
WHY NO ACTION?
Worse, two engineers of the irrigation department arrested by the VB last January, while allegedly accepting bribe from a contractor of the canal project, have faced no further action. They were booked for holding assets disproportionate to their income too. A year on, a chargesheet against them is yet to be filed in the Mansa district court, notwithstanding the norm that the filing is mandatory within 90 days of arrest.
Both continue to hold government posts. Executive engineer (XEN) KK Singla, a few days after his release on bail, was deputed as XEN for drainage, a public-dealing office, back in Mansa. Superintending engineer (SE) Suresh Goel has retired but found re-employment on contract with the Punjab Water Resources Management and Development Corporation (earlier known as Punjab State Tubewell Corporation).
Superintendent of police (SSP), vigilance, Jagjit Singh in Bathinda said “we cannot corelate” the engineers’ arrest in January with the inspection of the canals in August. He had led the inspection and probe teams in August. “The samples (of bricks and other concrete material used) have been sent to a lab in Chandigarh as a part of the probe,” he added. Upon further quizzing, he acknowledged that the VB office was “yet to deposit the fees” with the lab for the tests. Why the delay? “We will soon pursue it,” he said.
ON THE GROUND
Meanwhile, at Ralla village near Mansa, farmers have pooled in ₹12 lakh to lay 650 feet of pipe inside the broken minors to save rabi crops over 370 acres of a dozen landholdings. This means each farmer shelled out around ₹1 lakh.
Another farmer, Darshan Singh, faced a tough time in particular as the canal passing through his fields leaked at 20 places, as he counted it for the HT team. And, unlike some others, Darshan had no money to lay pipes. “I have been plugging the leaks with cement at different points, but I don’t know for how long I will be able to stop the water.”
Another farmers, Kuldeep Singh, said, “The vigilance men who came from Bathinda saw how they could easily take out bricks with their hands after the cement plaster eroded at different places.” He added, “Two days before the vigilance inspection, a sub-divisional officer (SDO) had told me that nothing was going to happen and that I should go in for repairs at my own cost.”
Activist Gursewak Singh Jawaharke has now moved the Punjab and Haryana high court seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into this “multi-crore scam”. “Some farmers who committed suicide in the past one year in this region had also contributed their 10% cost share,” he said.