Hemant to take up dam water issue with Bengal soon
DUMKA: Water is in your palm, but you can’t drink it. This is a fictional tragedy. But, for Jharkhand, it is a real one.
The state’s Dumka district houses the famous Massanjore dam but it can’t use a drop from it for irrigation. Instead it watches the dam waters irrigate West Bengal’s Birbhum district!
On Saturday, chief minister Hemant Soren raised the state’s voice for Jharkhand’s right to Massanjore dam water to irrigate the Santhal Parganas region.
In fact, the seeds of the tragedy were sown in the pre-Jharkhand agreement between the united Bihar and West Bengal. Under this 1957 pact, West Bengal could use the dam waters for irrigation. But, after the formation of Jharkhand, Dumka district, assembly constituency of Hemant Soren, fell in the state. However, no amendment was made to the agreement to allow Jharkhand use the waters.
“We are trying to locate the agreement papers about Massanjore dam. I think the time of the agreement has expired. We would talk to West Bengal gover nment in this regard soon,” Hemant said.
Chief minister Hemant Soren, who also represents Dumka assembly constituency, was on his official tour here on Saturday. Massanjore dam falls under his assembly constituency.
It is to be noted that about one year ago the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) supremo Sibu Soren had also suggested the Jharkhand government to reconsider the agreement over irrigation facilities being provided to the people of Bengal through Massanjore dam.
On September 17, 2012 Sibu had visited Massanjore to review the use of water by the people of Birbhum. He had also talked to those families who had been displaced in the 50s when the dam was being constructed under the first Five Year Plan with the technical support of Canada government. This dam is also called as Canada dam.
The historical records suggest that in 1956, the union government had built Massanjore dam over Mayurakshi River to provide the irrigation facilities to Birbhum district of West Bengal.
During united Bihar a Mayurakshi rehabilitation office had been started in Dumka. There is no existence of this very office now. The government had acquired about 35,000 acre lands against which about ` 2.75 crore had been provided to the affected people as compensation. The total cost of the construction of Massanjore dam was ` 86.1 lakh. (References: The Santhal Parganas district gazetteer -1965)
According to officials, the Jharkhand government had no paper about the agreement of Massanjore dam. The Jharkhand government officials were trying to contact their counterparts in Bihar in this regard.