-- Samir Umarye
BICHOLIM, OCT 23: Repair work of the damaged sluice gate and bandhara at Calvim-Aldona has begun much to the satisfaction of the farmers, even as they have strongly demanded construction of a new bandhara and compensation for the damaged crops. It may be recalled that in September, the sluice gate and bandhara at Calvim gave away and salty water entered the crops of several farmers, thereby causing loss of thousands of rupees. Following the incident, the Bardez Mamlatdar had ordered the Khazan Samiti to carry out necessary repairs. “On September 17, the Khazan Samiti was ordered to take up repairs of bandhara and sluice gate within seven days, but no work was carried out by the samiti. We had to suffer huge losses in the farm,” Vinayak Lamgaonkar, a farmer, told Herald. “Due to delay in the repair work, paddy farms of several farmers are destroyed. I alone suffered a loss of about Rs 30,000. As the paddy crops remained in water for a long, it started sprouting damaging the entire field,” informed Lamgaonkar. Similar was the case of several farmers, including Manohar Raikar, who had planted mango saplings. “I suffered a loss of about Rs 40,000 as most of the saplings are damaged,” said Raikar. Besides, paddy field belonging to one Sebastiao Rodrigues was also damaged, causing a loss of about Rs 20,000. When contacted, Khazan Samiti President T D’Souza informed that the delay was due to the unavailability of labourers. “We have started our work and the delay was to due to non-availability of the labourers. I am personally supervising the work so that it gets completed soon,” informed D’Souza. Meanwhile, farmers at the recently convened meeting demanded with the water resource department to construct a new bandhara. They have also urged the mamlatdar to look into the matter and compensate the farmers after conducting an inspection.
