Involvement of the sand mafia is suspected in the breaking of the crest gates of the Hingani barrage across the Bhima in Indi taluk on Tuesday last. Activists alleged that the intention could be to get easy excess to the sand on the river bed.
Thirteen of the 16 crest gates of the barrage were found broken and a large amount of water stored for irrigation and drinking water has gone waste.
“The incident shows that the sand mafia has no fear of law, that is why they do such jobs so easily and get away with it,” Panchayat Kalburgi, president of the Bhima Nadi Neeru Horata Samti, said.
He told The Hindu that over 40,000 residents of nine villages in Indi taluk and Akkalkot taluk of Maharashtra were using the water. “The total height of the barrage is 4.5 metres. Water was stored up to 3.5 metres. Now over 50 per cent of the water has gone waste,” Mr. Kalburgi said.
In view of the availability of water in the barrage, farmers had cultivated crops that need water. Their hopes have now been shattered.
Farmers and activists believe that the sand mafia in Maharashtra could have been involved in the incident. They also believe that some people of Indi taluk too could be part of it as the barrage is in the border of Maharashtra.
They said that as it was not possible to extract sand when the water level is high, those involved in illegal sand extraction broke the gates to release water.
Arrest
Though the police claimed to have arrested eight persons, the farmers say that they were only small fry while the main culprits were at large.
Expressing apprehension about the recurrence of such incidents, Mr. Kalburgi said that the only solution was the round-the-clock deployment of police personnel outside the barrage and installation of closed-circuit television cameras.
