Lens on power company for 'dismantling' dam

A dam on Rogda village of Janjgir-Champa district has been reportedly dismantled to facilitate the construction of a power plant in the area.

KSK Mahanadi Power Co, a unit of Hyderabad-based KSK Energy Ventures Ltd, is setting up a 3600-Mw power plant near Rogda village in Akaltara tehsil of Janjgir-Chamoa district. The company will require 2040 acres of land for the project, of which 265 acres belong to the government.

"The 131 acres of land on which Rogda dam once existed had been allotted to the company, which dismantled the structure and destroyed a source of water," former legislator of Akaltara Jawahar Dubey told Business Standard. The dam was irrigating about 550 acres of land and was a source for double-crop, he added.

Villagers had lodged a written complaint with the Akaltara police station urging to file offence against company and irrigation department officials for destroying the dam. "We have received the complaint and it has been referred to the irrigation department as the issue is between the company and the department," Akaltara police station in-charge D R Gandharwa said.

Officials of irrigation department declined to comment on the issue. "We don't have anything to say," Sub Divisional Officer of water resources department Yadav said.

A query sent to the District Collector, Brajesh Mishra failed to elicit any response. Irrigation department officials had earlier confirmed that there existed a dam in Rogda and was a source of irrigation in three villages.

In reply to an information sought under Right to Information Act (a copy of which is in possession of Business Standard), Executive Engineer of water resources department said that the Rogda dam had been built in 1962 with catchment area of 0.75 square miles. The dam was set up in 52.85 hectare of area and was irrigating 221.85 hectares of land in Rogda, Nayapara and Amora villages.

KSK Energy Ventures Ltd, however, declined to comment on the issue. The company's chief of corporate communication, Rohit Raj Mathur, did not reply to an e-mail despite reminders.

A company official, on condition of anonimity, clarified that the land on which dam existed was allotted by the government and the company had no reason to be under the scanner. He added that the dam was not a source of irrigation and hence there was no such issue of destroying or dismantling it.

Akaltara legislator Saurabh Singh contended that the dam was still a source of irrigation for the villagers though they were not the regular users. "It is true that after the Hasdeo Bango project came, villagers had not signed agreement for drawing water from Rogda dam," Singh said, adding that but they were occasionally using water of Rogda for lift irrigation.