‘Rat holes caused seepage in canal, led to its collapse’

HAZARIBAG/RANCHI: A canal that was first conceptualised 42 years ago and whose cost escalated from a mere Rs 12 crore to Rs 2,176 crore in the decades that went by collapsed just 24 hours after it was inaugurated with great fanfare in Hazaribag by Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das on Wednesday.The breach in the canal, part of the Konar River Irrigation Project in Hazaribag’s Bishnugarh, flooded agricultural fields across 35 villages in Bagodar block of neighbouring Giridih district.Authorities in the state irrigation department put the blame for the mishap on several rat holes that were yet to be cemented. The government has set up a three-member panel to probe the incident and submit a report within 24 hours. Bagodar’s BJP MLA Nagendra Mahto has demanded compensation for the affected farmers and an inquiry into the matter. Sources told TOI that the first breach had occurred at 8.30 pm on Wednesday, barely 10 hours after the canal was green-flagged.Opposition parties were quick to criticise the administration. Congress’s Alok Dubey said, “The BJP government takes credit for other’s work or inaugurates half-baked projects like Konar.”JMM central general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya said, “The government patted its own back by operationalising a project that was stalled for 42 years. They claimed the whole project will cost Rs 2,200 crore. The project was washed away in less than 22 hours.”Talking to TOI, additional chief secretary (water resources) Arun Kumar Singh said the probe panel will be headed by the chief engineer of the water resources department’s advance planning division. Kumar said, “According to preliminary information, rat holes in the non-concrete portion of the canal caused water seepage and led to its collapse.” During the opening ceremony on Wednesday, Das had praised his officials for making the first phase of the project operational so many decades after it was envisaged in what was then undivided Bihar. “With this project, farmers can now grow crops round the year,” the CM had said. “Now, we can say that the income of our farmers will increase as we had envisioned.”The Konar project was grounded for years before the Das government revived it in 2014. The Konar reservoir, built by Damodar Valley Corporation in 1955 on the Konar river, has a 357-km canal and a 17-km tunnel. While the tunnel work is complete, only 44-km of the canal work was finished before it was inaugurated, “in a hurry” as many said.Officials said the project’s actual completion is targeted for 2021. Over 62,955 hectares of farmland in 85 villages across Hazaribag, Giridih and Bokaro districts will benefit from the project on fruition.