Balangir, April 8: The district administration today formally started work on the much-awaited Lower Suktel Irrigation Project in the midst of protests by activists of the Lower Suktel Budi Anchal Sangram Parishad.
The administration began excavation and demarcated the layout of the spillway of the project. The project, for which the foundation stone was laid 2001, was on hold because of a tussle between those opposing the project and those for it. The Odisha government, too, has been going slow on giving a push to the project.
The project, which was initially estimated at Rs 217.13 crore, has now gone up to Rs 1,041 crore. It includes a 1,410 metre long and 36 metre high earthen dam.
The scheme contemplates two main canals, one taking off from the right bank with a length of 25.2km and another taking off from the left bank with a length of 27km. Once completed, it will irrigate 31,830 hectares in Balangir and Sonepur districts.
Ten platoons of police were deployed in and around the area to maintain law and order as district administration made its way to the project site to begin work.
The administration did not face much resistance, as there were only a few members of the Lower Suktel Budi Anchal Sangram Parishad activists there. The officials of the Odisha Construction Company (OCC) conducted the survey and demarcated the project spillway.
Pabitra Gadtia of Pardhiapali village and an activist of the parishad said they had been opposing the idea of having big dams and would continue to do so, as the government did not have a clear-cut rehabilitation and compensation policy for displaced villagers.
He said that those ousted during the Rengali project, Hirakud dam and the Lower Indra project in Nuapada district had not received their dues. General secretary of the parishad Satya Banchor said they wanted the project to be shelved. “We will continue to agitate if work continues,” he said.
Executive engineer of OCC, the company entrusted with the construction of the project, Trilochan Das said: “We have begun demarcation. There are other officials who will look into the land acquisition and rehabilitation issues,” he said.
On September 27 last year, the district administration had stopped the work following resistance from the parishad activists.
