Ranchi: The Jharkhand High Court has pulled up the state government for its lackadaisical approach towards execution of the long-pending Kharkai dam project and asked the state chief secretary to explain why it remained incomplete despite spending ₹6,100 crore on it.
The High Court made this remark while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by one Santosh Kumar Soni against closure of Kharkai dam project being built in Seraikela. The government has closed the project in 2020.
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A division bench of Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and AK Rai asked whether the work should stop after such a huge amount was spent. What did the government do to deal with villagers’ agitation? What final decision has the government taken regarding the Kharkai dam project?
The bench has directed the Jharkhand chief secretary to file an affidavit on these points before the next date of hearing, which is May 14. In an affidavit on behalf of the state government, water resources department, informed the court that the Kharkai Dam project is stalled due to the opposition of local villagers against land acquisition.
Kharkai Dam Project
The Kharkai Dam is located in Ichha, Odisha, and is part of the Subarnarekha mmajor irrigation project. The project involves building the Icha dam across the Kharkai River in Jharkhand to store 840 hm3 of water for use by Jharkhand and Odisha. The water will be shared between the two states in a 50:18 ratio. The dam is an earthen/gravity and masonry structure.
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Is government keeping watch on people’s stir?
Taking serious exception, the court orally said that more than ₹6,100 crore has been spent on this project. “Before floating the tender, the state government must have prepared a detailed project report (DPR). In the DPR, had the state government not given any consideration to the villagers’ agitation regarding land acquisition,” asked the bench.
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Shall court order a CBI probe?
The court orally said that if the situation is so complicated, as projected by the government, the court will make CBI a respondent in the case and gets the investigation done by the investigating agency. Every details of the scheme, the issues will come out. In an earlier hearing, the court had asked the state government why the Kharkai Dam project was closed in the year 2020 after spending more than ₹6,000 crores.
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Three states had signed agreement for the project
In the year 1978, a tripartite agreement was signed between the governments of unified Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal. Under this, Kharkai Dam was being constructed. Land for this dam project has also been acquired and the affected displaced people. The state government has already allocated land for rehabilitation of the displaced. In such a situation, this project should be completed.
