Team Herald
PONDA: Barely one month after it was repaired, the Bar Amre bhandara in Marcaim, bordering vast khazan lands alongside the river, has suffered a breach yet again, resulting in the saline water gushing through and flooding the fields.
An area of 25 lakh hectares of agricultural land, providing a livelihood to around 650 farmers, has been inundated. Bar Amre Khazan Committee member Premanand Gaude alleged that the previous Committee neglected the maintenance work of the bundh.
“This is one reason for the breach. The old committee was dissolved last month by the Mamlatdar, for mismanagement of the association’s funds, pending inquiry,” he added.
Gaude said, “The fresh breach in the bhandara has been reported to the Ponda Mamlatdar and Soil Conservation Department.”
“We have started work on repairing the bhandara. The farmers could not cultivate the land this season as the fields were full of brackish water from the previous breach in the bhandara. Just as that breach was repaired, the bhandara has again suffered a five-metre-long breach yet again,” he lamented.
Gaude asserted the need to strengthen or reconstruct the entire bhandara, which is several centuries old, for the sake of the farmers who depend on cultivating these lands to earn a living.
