MP's Nagalwadi micro Lift Irrigation project is under scrutiny!

Last Saturday, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was addressing the public in Barwani. Here, he inaugurated Nagalwadi and Pati micro lift irrigation projects. Under the Nagalwadi Micro Lift Irrigation Project, irrigation facilities will be available in a total of 38,412 hectares of land in the Khargone and Barwani districts. Its expenditure in government figures is Rs 1173.03 crore. And under the Pati Micro Lift Irrigation Project, an irrigation facility will be provided on 5500 hectares of land in Barwani district for Rs 128.85 crore.

Speaking during the inauguration, he said that the demand of the local public representatives in 2018 has been fulfilled today. He further said that the Madhya Pradesh government has done the work of providing water even in impossible areas. Now water is being transported to the fields by lift. The government's claim about this scheme costing crores is that it will provide relief to the farmers of Nimar who are suffering from drought. But the results of the incomplete project and earlier projects question this claim.

Nagalwadi Micro Lift Irrigation Project

The foundation stone of this scheme was laid in the year 2018 during the Kamal Nath government of Congress. Now Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has inaugurated it in the BJP government. According to CB Tatwal, Executive Engineer of Nagalwadi Project.

“This scheme, which will benefit Khargone and Barwani districts of Madhya Pradesh, is 2 thousand kilometres long”.

He added, 42 thousand farmers will be benefited due to this scheme. Describing the whole project, he says,

“We have made sections of 20 hectares each, which are divided into two and a half hectares each. We will give water only in 2 rounds at a time.” 

This is an ambitious plan for the government. But due to incidents of pipeline bursting during its testing in the past, the question was raised that this plan is still incomplete.

Last month, on June 23, the pipeline burst during testing in the Brahmin village of Barwani. Due to this, the farmers suffered losses due to water logging in their fields. Apart from this, a week before the inauguration, a similar incident took place in Golania village. Responding to these incidents, Tatwal says, “Testing happens before the start of any project. There are 4,200 joints in the whole project, and faults in one of those joints don’t certify the whole project as a failure.

Pati Micro Lift Irrigation Project

This project was approved on October 3, 2017, in the 58th meeting of the Narmada Control Board. A total of 23 villages of Barwani district's Pati and Barwani tehsil will be benefited under the scheme. One of its pump houses has been built in Barwani's submergence-affected village Bijasan. The land on which this pump house is built belongs to Mohan Singh. Mohan is a farmer by profession. According to the government claim, farmers will be happy with this project. But, Mohan is not included in those farmers.

“The government has already taken half of my land that has been submerged, but apart from that, the dry land has also been taken without the permission of the villagers.”

Mohan says that more than 25 per cent of his land has been taken for this project, for which he is being given Rs. 4 to 5 lakh as compensation, which is very less.

Senior journalist Rajendra Joshi of Barwani also questions the need for this project.

 “The area where lift irrigation is planned under this project has the Goi River on one side and the Narmada River on the other. Out of the hilly areas for which lift micro irrigation is being claimed, only 1-2 villages are in the hilly areas.” 

Joshi tells us that the water that is to be brought under this scheme will also be supplied from the same water required under the Nal-Jal project. He wonders why the government thinks that both irrigation and drinking water supply will be done under this scheme.

Hastily inaugurated

According to Rajendra Joshi, the project of the party is not yet fully ready and it has been inaugurated in a hurry. He also raises questions about the future challenges of the project.

“Farmers have only 1 to 2 acres of land in Pati area. These people are also divided into divisions, in such a way how the pipeline will be drawn is beyond understanding.”

Referring to the incident of a pipe burst during the testing done under the Nagalwadi project, he says,

“The pipe has burst twice in the last 15 days. In a hurry, the project has been inaugurated by installing pipes from above.”

Groundreport tried to contact the Executive Engineer of the Pati Micro Lift Irrigation Project over the phone to get official information regarding the current status of the project and further action plans. But, he remained unreachable. The news will be updated after receive his statement.

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