The farmers of several seaside villages have threatened to stage a dharna before the Collectorate if their demand to renovate coast canal was not addressed. They said that due to silting for years the British time canal is had been rendered useless. As a result their fields face the adverse impact of saltwater ingression during high tide of Bay of Bengal.
They have been bearing the brunt of the saline water ingression into their fields and the affected GPs are Bhimpur, Kumarpur, Tundura, Chhachina, Bardhanpur , Inchidi, Sahajanpur, Kusmulipahi, Tundurapahi and Bardhanpurpahi etc, they informed. Although they have been pleading before the district administration and elected representatives yet no action was taken concerning their grievances, they alleged. The canal was dug way back in the nineteen century as the first project under the ‘Food for work’ programme, after the patch was acutely hit by the worst famine in the 1860s.
The coast canal connects the river Hoogly at Geonkhali; 45 miles(72 km) from Calcutta with river Matai at Charbatia near Bhadrak. Its length in Orissa was 92miles(147.2 km) and is divided into four ranges. The works for the Orissa Coast Canal started in the year 1880-81 under food for work to prevent people from acute famine then. The amount of original estimate of the Orissa Coast Canal was Rs 36 lakh inclusive of the indirect charges and was revised in 1888 chiefly on account of excess in navigation works due to bad foundation and cost of extra land. The revised estimate was nearly Rs 45 lakh.
Apart from providing relief to starving people of Odisha during ‘Nanka Durvikhya’ , it proved to be a boon for the undivided Baleswar district as it opened up new trade transport and communication routes. Besides navigation and irrigation, the canal helped in fish farming etc.