Team Herald
SANGUEM: After Water Resources Department failed to provide regular water supply to sugarcane farmers at Wadem in Sanguem Taluka, the cane cultivators accompanied by Panchayat member Kushta Gaonkar and Kristanand Pednekar of Shivyoddhya Sangarsh Unit, submitted a memorandum to the executive engineer of Water Resources Department highlighting the plight of the sugarcane cultivators in the village.
In their memorandum, the farmers bitterly complained of the acute shortage of water supply in the village due to haphazard construction of bhandara and failure on the part of the department to rectify the problem in the construction of the bhandara.
The memorandum states that since the past twelve years, the villagers have been complaining of the acute water supply for agriculture in the village, but the department has failed to pay any heed to issue.
The bhandara constructed in the village have failed to store water due to which the sugarcane fields have dried up, complained panchayat member Kushta Gaonkar.
Gaonkar further claimed that the government has taken the farmers from Wadem village for granted and threatened to lead a mass agitation including that of boycotting the ensuing elections if the government fails to address the severe problem of agricultural water supply in the village.
Gaonkar claimed over 400 farmers depend on the bhandara constructed at Wadem Colony No 2. However due to lack of water storage facility at the bhandara, all the 400 farmers are facing acute water problems, Gaonkar complained.
“The government has been spending several crores of rupees on the water supply schemes in the village, but due to poor planning and faulty execution of the projects, the farmers are made to pay heavy losses,” Gaonkar said.
