The parched land of Sonebhadra will start getting water from Bansagar dam as threat of UP’s Irrigation minister Shivpal Singh Yadav has worked and Madhaya Paradesh Government has decided to release water from the said dam. “UP’s Sone river will start getting water from the Ban Sagar dam after MP Government has decided to release 2000 cusec of water. This will solve irrigation and drinking water problems of the sonebhadra and Mirzapur regions to large expetnt,” Yadav said here on Monday.
The issue was hanging afire for last many years. In recent past officials of Irrigation departments of Madhya Pradesh and UP held a meeting with Central Water Commission. last week Yadav had met Irrigation Minister of Madhya Pradesh in New Delhi and had asked MP government to release water. “Yadav had threatened to take legal action against Madhya Pradesh Government if it fails to release water by the end of this month. The UP Government had made all preparations to take MP to Supreme Court,” Senior officials in UP Government said.
Yadav had also met Union Minister for Water Resources Uma Bharti to direct Madhya Pradesh government to release 2000 cusecs of water from Bansagar dam for two months into Sone river against the due share of Uttar Pradesh. The state says that it should get one Million Acre-Feet water as per the tri-partite agreement between MP, UP and Bihar. The dam is located in Madhya Pradesh and controlled by Bansagar Control Board which is a subordinate office of the Union Water Resources Ministry. It is constructed at the cost of Rs 2800 crore . MP Government had alleged that operational cost should be borne by three states and UP’s share in Rs 68 crore – which it has not cleared. Chief Minister of MP Shivraj Singh Chauhan had said that unless the dues are cleared water will not be released.
“Due to the intervention of Union Government the issue has been resolved. Now, UP will get water for next two months,” the official said. Due to severe heat and scarcity of rains, an acute crisis of drinking water and irrigation has arisen in the districts of Sonbhadra and Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. The water will help in easing problem in this rugged region, he said.