Jamshedpur, Aug. 19: Farmers would have to wait some more for water from the Subernarekha Multipurpose Project (SMP) canal. The 127km canal project between Chandil and Dhalbhumgarh has slowed down as the government did not deem it necessary to appoint a full-time administrator of the SMP.

The former administrator of the SMP, Mahaveer Prasad, who tried to arrange around 1,800 hectares of land in substitute of the forest land, retired without completing the process. At the moment, the state secretary of water resource department, A.K. Sarkar is monitoring the SMP’s activities.

Last year, the union forest and environment ministry had given the first stage of clearance to construct a main canal of the national project, aimed at benefit ting Jharkhand and neighbours Bengal and Orissa.

When Prasad’s predecessor B.K. Tripathy was the administrator of the SMP, he would liaison between district administration and the central government to complete the project in the larger interest of farmers. During his regime, the central forest and environment ministry had given the nod to start construction work of the SMP canal. But the state government had to provide around 1,800 hectares of land as a substitute to use forest land for digging a canal. This substitute land is proving hard to come by.

According to the senior forest official (Singhbhum-Kolhan), the authorities had not submitted a patta (ownership rights) of the procured land to the forest department. According to central government laws, they have to first give substitute land before starting any digging work of the canal. The forest department would have to issue a No Objection Certificate first,” the official said.

The problems are many. “The government had purchased plots from the private owners in West Singhbhum and adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan for the SMP. We had paid them their money. But they are refusing to move from their land even after getting the money,” said a senior engineer requesting anonymity.

The SMP has not able to procure 1800 hectares of compensatory land to be handed over to the forest department. “There is limited government land in the Singhbhum-Kolhan region. We have to purchase land from private owners who are reluctant to sell,” the senior engineer said.

He also added that the district administrations of East Singhbhum and adjoining districts of the Singhbhum-Kolhan have failed to provide land. “Land owners, particularly tribals are against selling their ancestral property,” said the engineer.