Even after crores of rupees were spent on Tehri district’s main Sarjyula pumping water project, the intended beneficiaries continue to suffer without regular water supply. After spending Rs20 crore, the project has not been completed in nine years. As a result, thousands of people in 37 villages and 163 clusters will face water shortage in the summer this year too. In 2006, the Congress Government had started the pumping project to facilitate water supply to the thousands of people living in villages of Sarjyula Patti area. At that time, the plan was to complete the project by 2012 at a cost of Rs20 crore. Work on this project began in 2007 with token release of Rs25 lakh. But even after years, the project has remained incomplete.
According to sources in the Peyjal Nigam, about 65 per cent of the project work has been completed. It should be noted that since construction work of the project was started in 2007, locals have been complaining about the quality of construction and the slow pace at which the work is being executed. The Peyjal Nigam has constructed 27 water tanks and laid a supply line only in one village while supply lines have not been laid yet to dozens of other villages. The Sarjyula pumping water project is intended to facilitate water supply to Bagi, Pangarkhal, Balma, Budogi, Kuttha, Pata, Pipli, Bhatkoti, Sursingdhar, Nawagar, Gyansu, Kyari, Palam, Dobra, Sagwan, Koti, Chawalkhet, Ghonabagi, Batkhem and many other villages in the area.
According to district Panchayat member Ragini Bhatt and former village Pradhan Rama Devi, the project work has not been completed yet mainly due to negligence of the Peyjal Nigam. If the project work is not completed in near future, the people of the area will be forced to undertake an agitation, they warned. The dozens of villages in the Sarjyula Patti are totally dependent on natural water sources for their water requirements. The water supply lines installed in some of these villages through the Gram Panchayat are of little or no use. The water problem intensifies during the summer season with the villagers in the region having to depend on limited water supplied by the Jal Sansthan through water tankers. The shortage of water resulting in hardships faced by farmers is believed to be one of the major factors fueling the migration of people from the rural mountainous areas to urban areas in the plains.