Guj: Villagers risk life, use floodgates to cross canal with

A video purportedly showing some villagers crossing a canal using its floodgates with their children in Gujarat's Kheda district has come to the fore.

After the clip became viral on social media yesterday, Kheda district collector directed the officials concerned to immediately start the construction of a causeway on a ravine connecting Naika and Bherai village of the district.

In the video, some locals of both these villages are purportedly seen risking their lives by standing on the narrow floodgate structure to help their children in crossing the canal.

Four men can purportedly be seen passing on the school students to another man standing on the other side of the canal.

While talking to reporters yesterday, locals claimed that they were forced to use the canal structure as the narrow causeway connecting the two villages damaged a few months back.

Kheda collector I K Patel said a small causeway over a ravine passing between these two villages got damaged.

"The contractor concerned constructed a temporary pathway over the ravine using sand bags while the work to build a new causeway was underway. However, the rain water released from the canal washed away the ongoing work as well as the temporary pathway a few days back," said Patel.

He said villagers were using that structure on the canal as a shortcut. "Otherwise, they have to travel around 8 kms to reach the other side. I have asked officials to speed up the construction of the causeway," he added.

Meanwhile, a temporary structure using pipes was built today to help villagers cross the ravine, the collector said.