The work on digging a channel to bring the Ganga closer to the city continued on Wednesday on the undisputed stretch between Pehalwan and Collectorate Ghat even as the district administration bought another day's time to come up with a report on the riverbed land ownership claims.
"We are moving eastwards from Pehalwan Ghat because people demonstrated on Monday claiming ownership of land to its west. We have not been able to bring more earthmovers to carry out the work in full swing because of protests. We have requested the district administration to resolve all the land-related disputes at the earliest, so that can we can finish the work within the stipulated deadline," said a senior engineer of the water resources department, the executing agency of the task.
A senior district administration official said: "The land records of all plots on the alignment of the proposed new channel are being reviewed at present to assess the claim of protesters. We would be able to furnish the corresponding report by tomorrow (Thursday)."
The state government decided to dig the channel on the directive of Patna High Court to restore the original course of the Ganga, which was closer to the city.
While submitting an affidavit before the high court on April 6, it had stated that the work on digging the channel along the banks of the Ganga would commence on April 18 and the task would be completed by June 15.
The tender for digging the 7.1-km-long and 30-m-wide channel between Kali Ghat and Digha Ghat was floated by the state water resources department on April 13.
An estimated outlay of Rs 8.5 crore has been made for the construction of the new channel. The government appeared to have embarked on the task without much groundwork, as the water resources department officials had to abandon work on April 19 - the day of channel-digging debut - at LCT Ghat because of protests of claimants of land on the riverbed.
The next day, they shifted eastward to Pehalwan Ghat. Amid mild protest, the work started on April 20 on the eastern side of the ghat.
The Telegraph had carried a report in its April 20, 2015 edition highlighting that the state water resources department had embarked on the work on April 19 at LCT Ghat in the Kurji area but some residents - mostly farmers and businessmen settled in diara (riverine) areas - forced its officials to flee the spot.
They countered mild protests the next day at Pehalwan Ghat but managed to start work on its eastern side.
The protesters claimed that large chunks of land in the alignment earmarked for digging the new channel belonged to them because they were declared raiyati (revenue) land following the shift in the river course around 1908-09.
"We have got the land registration documents with us and we have been paying raiyat or lagaan (tax) on yearly basis to the state. We shall submit a formal complaint to Patna district magistrate (Abhay Kumar Singh) on Friday," said businessmen Dilip Kumar, who claimed to own 3.25acres of land at Rajapur on the banks of the Ganga.
Officials in the water resources department claimed that the delay in the finalisation of the report on land records was slowing down the work of digging the new channel.
"The entire work is supposed to be done systematically. Once we get into the final stage of digging the channel, Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) would start the dredging work to allow merging of the main course of the river with the new channel when the water level rises in monsoon. Unless we complete digging the channel, IWAI would not be able to start on dredging," said the engineer in the water resources department.
