(From left) Ajay Nayak, principal secretary of the water resources department, minister for water resources Bijendra Prasad Yadav, minister for building construction Chedi Paswan address reporters on Durgawati Water Project at the Secretariat in Patna on Friday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Patna, Aug. 6: The Durgawati Water Reservoir Project that started in 1975 and was slated for completion in 1980, still remains incomplete.

The cost of the mega irrigation project has already crossed Rs 1,064.428 crore without a single drop of water reaching the poor peasants of the two Naxal-dominant districts of Rohtas and Kaimur in the last 25 years.

Once known as the ‘rice-bowl’ of Bihar, the area still holds the potential to feed the entire state if irrigation is available.

Former state irrigation minister Jagdanand Singh of Rashtria Janata Dal was elected from this area for 15 years. After the bifurcation of Bihar in 2000, he was also the environment and forest minister.

Sources said that due to “political pressures” the bureaucracy turned a blind eye to the project.

Now, the Nitish Kumar-led government is showing interest in the issue.

State water resources minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav on Friday assured that the project will be completed within the next two years.

While addressing the media at the state water resource department, the minister said that the project had entered into its final phase of completion and it would provide water for irrigation to farmers of the area within the next two years.

“The previous government is responsible for delay in work as they did not take this issue as important as others,” Yadav said.

The foundation stone of the Durgawati Water Reservoir Project in Kaimur district was laid in 1975, and the year 1980 was the target to complete its construction work.

It is nearly 25 years that construction works has not been completed yet.

The land is located in forest area and Rs 57.15 lakh was given to the forest department as compensation for using the land.

In 1980 the implementation of Forest Conservation Act became obstacle as it put restriction on de-reservation of forests or use of forestland for non-forest purpose.

The Planning Commission of India has sanctioned Rs 25.30 crore in 1975 for the construction of the reservoir whereas the present cost for the completion goes up to Rs 1,064.428 crore.

“The progress of the digging of the main canals of the project was negligible. It was being noticed that the construction work of the project was not going on rapidly in the regime of previous government. Such delay in construction work had increased the estimate amount earmarked for it and resentment among people is increasing day by day,” said Yadav.