Farmers stage rasta-roko demanding completion of canal work

Hundreds of farmers and women today staged a road blockade for two hours on Manmad road at Nirmal-Pimpri near here, demanding completion of Nilwande dam canal work in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra.
Shiv Sena MP Sadashiv Lokhande led the agitation.
He said that though the dam was constructed last year, the canals were yet not completed and as a result 182 villages in six tehsils were facing an acute water scarcity as the state is reeling under a severe drought this year.
He also said that he had met the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard and requested him to expedite the work.

Nanasaheb Shelake of Nilwande dam action committee also took part in the agitation.
Harischandra Chakor, a retired executive engineer with the Maharashtra water resources department, said construction of the dam began in 1992 and was complete in 2015, but works of left canal and right canal was not yet complete.