Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Brijmohan Agrawal visited the site of Jhora canal Haydraulic Control structure, which is under-construction in Bastar division on the Chhattisgarh and Odisha border on Wednesday. Two structures are under construction on the Indrawati river and Jhora canal on both sides of Odisha and Chhattisgarh border.
Agrawal reviewed the construction work with top officers of both the States. He revealed that Chhattisgarh Government had released all the financial grants and it is the bounden duty of concerned agencies to complete the pending works as early as possible.
The Minister called upon the officers to complete the construction works as early as possible for maintaining harmony on the Chhattisgarh-Orissa border. The benefits of the river waters should be shared by both the states. Agrawal said that monsoon is only one month away and the construction work should be speeded-up and major works should be completed by June 15.
It is significant to mention here that Agrawal has written a letter to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on May 2 requesting him to complete the construction work of hydraulic control structure on Indrawati river and Jhora canal as soon as possible.
He enquired about the working plan with the Orissa State Water Resources Department and Corporation officers and said that it is crucial to divert Indravati river waters to Jhora canal.
The Orissa Construction Corporation Senior Manager said that construction works on both the hydraulic control structures on Indrawati and Jhora canal are going on at a fast pace. The loop on Jhora canal will be cut and work completed by June 15.
The temporary structure collapsed sometime back and it created a hurdle in the construction works. It is interesting to note that earlier the waters in Indrawati river flowing in Chhattisgarh used to revert back to Odisha via Jhora Canal.
The Central Water Commission held a meeting on May 24 in year 2000 with the then Madhya Pradesh and Odisha State Government and an agreement was worked out to build temporary structure and share Indrawati river waters and Jhora canal waters on a 50-50 per cent basis.
The Odisha State Government has allotted the construction work to Odisha Construction Corporation. The work was started on March 25, 2012. The agreement mentions that the construction work on hydraulic control structures will be completed on June 24 2014.
District Panchayat Chairperson Jabita Mandwi, Municipal Corporation former Mayor Kiran Dev, Bastar Commissioner Dilip Wasnikar, Collector Amit Kataria, Chhattisgarh State Water Resources Department Engineer-In-Chief H. R. Kutare , Chief Engineer S.V. Bhagawat, Superintending Engineer P.K. Verma, Odisha State Water Resources Department Executive Engineer Rajendra Rath and Odisha Construction Corporation Senior Manager S.K. Gana Nayak were also present.