The Congress has blamed the Rajkot Municipal Corporation for their failure in plugging the leak and has been blaming the BJP for diverting water for industrialists
A leak in a valve of the SAUNI pipeline which carries water to Rajkot city has snowballed into a political issue after Chief Minister Vijay Rupani claimed on Thursday that it happened after someone played mischief. Rupani was attending a religious function at Maai Mandir in Rajkot, his hometown.
Talking to media persons, he said, "I firmly believe that someone deliberately broke the valve to tarnish the image of the state and the local body government. We will make sure such incidents do not repeat in future; stringent actions will be taken against those responsible for this. The local authority has registered a police complaint against unknown persons."
The Congress has blamed the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) for their failure in plugging the leak and has been blaming the BJP for diverting water for industrialists. With the CM calling it a deliberately done act, the issue is expected to get messier in the coming days.
The pipeline carries Narmada water under the SAUNI scheme from Dholi Dhaja dam near Surendranagar to Aji dam near Rajkot. The leak was reported on Monday at Suryarampura village near Wankaner town of Morbi district. Water supply to Aji dam has been stopped for five days, with local authorities still figuring how to plug the leak.
The RMC gets 270 million litres per day (MLD) from Aji dam for 20-minute daily supply. The irrigation department noticed that the water level in the dam was at 22.10 feet in 18 days; with the inflow of 318 million cubic feet (MMCF) from Dholi Dhaja dam, this was much lower than what should have been. The department found that the valve in the pipeline at Suryarampura village was leaking. The water that leaked from the pipeline filled a lake in the village; to put it in context, local body sources said that much water was enough to keep Rajkot city hydrated for 20 days. However, the valve was not mended till late on Thursday.
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