Narmada water being wasted: Congress

Gujarat Congress has now raised the issue of Narmada water going waste as it is not released for irrigation to farmers. Terming it as ‘criminal negligence of the BJP’, Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said in a statement that the volume of water drained into sea from Sardar Sarovar Dam during last 35 days is estimated at about 5.7 lakh crore sq ft.

“At present, about 15,875 crore sq ft water is stored in the dam. It is surprising that when volume of water flowing over the dam was 8.22 lakh cusecs, water diverted into canals was only 24,000 cusecs as against its carrying capacity of 42,000 cusecs. When 10 lakh cusecs water was overflowing from the dam, only 16,000 cusecs water was being released to the main canal.

Why were seven main dams of Dharoi, Vatrak, Mazam etc. not filled by utilising fullest capacity of the main canal even after spending huge amount of Rs11,000 crore on Sujalam Sufalam Yojana?” he questioned.

He further added that government of India, on examining the details of receipt and expenditures of huge amount granted by Union Government under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Program (AIBP) to Gujarat during 2003 to 2005, found that the state government could not utilize Rs1,103.20 crore out of the grants. It has failed to utilise Rs1157.92 crore which was in fact granted by the Union government for extending benefit of irrigation to farmers of Gujarat, he said.