Balangir, June 24: The minor irrigation department, which had been entrusted with the job of renovating the town’s water bodies, began work late last month. With the monsoon already in, there is hardly any hope of further work.

Local residents alleged that the real reason behind the late start was to get the money without doing much work. About six months ago, Rs 3.30 crore had been granted by the department of planning and coordination for renovating eight water bodies of the town. But the department started renovating some ponds late last month while work in some others began only this month.

The eight water bodies include Karangakata, Narsingh bandh, Marwari bandh, Rani bandh, Gate Sarovar, Talpali bandh, Salepali bandh and Kandhpali bandh. Sources said Kandhapali bandh has been allotted a maximum of Rs 1 crore for renovation while Gate Sarovar gets Rs 50 lakh. Salepali bandh and Marwari bandh have been allotted Rs 30 lakh each while Rani bandh, Narsingh bandh and Karangakata get Rs 40 lakh each.

However tenders were invited for the work only recently and agreement with the contractors was completed in mid-April. But the contractors made inordinate delay to start the work. Work has not even started in Gate Sarovar.

Ranjan Sahu, a resident of Kansaripada said people of the locality depend on the Gate Sarovar as it is the only water body in the area. “About 2,000 people depend on this pond, but it is unsuitable for use now. We expected that renovation would start soon and we will be able to use it. But work has not started yet,” Sahu said.

“They intentionally started working late as work wouldn’t be possible during rains and they make more profit if they don’t do much work,” said Purusottam Mishra, another local resident.

However, Balangir minor irrigation department assistant engineer Manabhanjan Satapathy ruled out such a possibility. “We had taken measurements before start of work. The contractor will be billed according to that,” he said. Admitting that work started late this year, he said all care would be taken to start the work early next year. “We will dry the ponds before March to begin the digging work early. Contract of the person who failed to start renovation work of Gate Sarovar will be cancelled,” Satapathy said.

There are 18 water bodies in Balangir and all these are traditional water bodies like bandha, sagar, kata and munda. However, years of negligence have left these water bodies in pitiable state. All these existing water bodies are around 100 years old and were dug up by the Chouhan rulers of Balangir state in the early part of 20th century.

Another local resident Purusottam Mishra said hardly anything had been done in places where work had been taken up. “The filth cleared from the Narsingh bandh and Marwari bandh are dumped on the walls of the water bodies. Work is not possible in other ponds as they have to be made dry and this is not possible as it can rain any time now,” he said.