When Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Bhavani dam project as part of a slew of inaugurations of irrigation projects in Mahoba on November 19, last year, thousands of farmers in the water scarce Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh breathed a sigh of relief.
However, about 200 kilometres away from the inauguration event in Mahoba, 65-year-old Mukundi Prajapati, a resident of Jaraoli village in Lalitpur’s Bar block, was not pleased at the announcement.
“My khet (agriculture fields) are merely half a kilometre away from my madhayi (hut). But ever since water has been filled in this dam, I have to cross over at least five kilometers to reach my khet. I’m an old man, working on the field is itself hard enough. I cannot walk ten kilometres in a day,” Prajapati, the 65-year-old cultivator told Gaon Connection.
Also Read: Shortage in fertilisers throw farmers in Lalitpur district in turmoil
“A small drain has cut off my fields from my village, we walk through the neighbouring Kailoni Taparian village to reach our fields,” he added.
Prajapati is not alone in his hardship. There are as many as a hundred farmers like him in his village whose fields have been cut off from the water of the flowing drain.
Jarawali village is located in the lower part of the Bhavni dam project in the Lalitpur district, around 450 kilometres from Lucknow, the state capital of Uttar Pradesh. It is located in the Mehrauni tehsil of the district.
According to the 2011 census, around a hundred farmers, including Mukundi Prajapati, have about 200 acres (about 81 hectares) of land across the drain.
Also Read: Debt and natural calamity push Bundelkhand’s farmers to the brink
‘Buy our lands or make way for us to reach our fields’
Sixty-year-old Karan Singh, Prajapati’s neighbour told Gaon Connection that there’s no logic in cultivating the land in such conditions.
“It takes extra two to three hours to do our work now. The flow in the drain is quite deep, it is not safe to cross it at all,” he said.
“Buy our lands or make a system to cross the stream. Also, we cannot protect the crops from stray animals. Farmers here are irritated and disappointed. We do believe that the administration is indifferent to our suffering,” Singh added.
Also Read: Holy cow? Not for the UP farmer, who now spends nights protecting crops against stray cattle attacks
Tulsi Ram, a 55-year-old farmer from the same village informed Gaon Connection that the farmers have often appealed to the district magistrate and the irrigation department to build a permanent bridge over the drain.
“But nobody listens, the problem lingers, and the entire village suffers. The villagers want to fix the problem by selling off their lands. On the other hand, buyers are scarce and concerned about the lack of connectivity with the village. This means that the land remains unsold. Nobody except the government can buy it. We want to get rid of the problem,” the farmer told Gaon Connection.
‘Efforts underway to get a road constructed over the drain’
When Gaon Connection approached the officials associated with the dam project, it was learnt that the farmers’ demand to sell land was not being considered.
Rather, the administration is working on building a road over the drain.
“We are doing what is appropriate. The farmers demand that either the government or the project should acquire the land and provide compensation, but this is not practical,” Bhagirath Baruwan, executive engineer, Bhavani dam project, told Gaon Connection.
“The project is in the final stage of completion. We are working to resolve the farmers by building a causeway. We have received tacit approval for its construction. Farmers’ problems will be remedied as soon as the idea is accepted. As soon as the proposal is approved, the farmer’s issues will be solved, enabling them to attend to their fields and normalcy will be restored,” the executive engineer added.
Meanwhile, the Bhavani dam project has been completed at a cost of Rs 512.75 crores. The Dam project commenced in 2012 on the Sajnam river, which originates near Bhavni hamlet in Talbehat tehsil. It has a total length of 4.08 kilometres and a height of 15.68 metres, a water storage capacity of 23.790 MCM (thousand cubic metres). It is supposed to irrigate over 3,800 hectares of land, helping over 8,000 farmers and providing water to 30,000 people throughout thE year.
