Balasore, June 22: Irate villagers of Sindhia gram panchayat here today damaged a diversion weir (check dam) alleging that the embankment has proved to be more of a bane than a boon.

Following water inundation of the agriculture fields in the aftermath of the recent floods, angry villagers of Sadar block tried to knock down the dam. The executive engineer stopped their move assuring them of looking into their grievances.

“Instead of being an advantage, the dam has been creating a lot of problems. Due to certain technical defects, there has been severe waterlogging in hundreds of acres of the agricultural land,” said Bhaskar Jena, a local resident.

“The aggrieved farmers took this radical step since there was no response from the administration despite regular appeals,” Jena added

“The farmers of Sindhia, Nagram, Buanal, Olondasarangan and Odingi are the worst affected. There are not proper openings to drain out the excess water,” said another villager.

Madhusudan Mohapatra, sarpanch of Sindhia gram panchayat, agreed that the dam had been adding to the villagers’ woes for the past few years. “However, I tried my best to dissuade the people from breaking the structure, but in vain,” he said.

Sadar sub-collector Ramesh Rout said: “We would conduct an inquiry into the incident. I have not received any complaint regarding the dam. Further, we would ask the concerned department to look into the matter.”

The diversion weir (DW) project was done nearly 20 years ago, said executive engineer of the minor irrigation Suresh Satpathy. Satpathy prevented the villagers from breaking the dam. “For the want of a proper drainage system, the structure is causing problems which can alleviated by a minor rectification. We would create adequate openings on both sides of the check dam to allow proper discharge of water,” said Satpathy.

On the other hand, sub-divisional police officer of Sadar block K.C. Parida said no complaint had been made in connection with today’s incident and “no law and order situation had emerged”.