All party leaders agitated for 8.6 TMC of water in Jayakwadi Dam

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The leaders and activists of all political parties, except BJP, today staged a rasta roko to press the demand of releasing 8.6 TMC of water in Godavari basin for Marathwada, from the upstream dams in Ahmednagar and Nashik districts, in front of Godavari Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation (GMIDC) headquarters (Sinchan Bhavan) at Jalna Road, today at 11 am.

The agitators made it clear that they will not tolerate bullying and domination of the leaders from Nashik and Ahmednagar districts as they are trying their best to prevent and delay the release of the water in Jayakwadi Dam (Nath Sagar). The traffic on the Jalna road was disrupted for four and a half hours as the agitators took the stand of not withdrawing the agitation till the water is not released in the dam. Later on, the police by using the force detained more than 100 agitators including former minister Rajesh Tope, Anil Patel, former MLAs Kalyan Kale and Kailash Gorantyal.

It may be noted that there is only 42 per cent of water available in the Jayakwadi Project. This year, the region will be facing acute water shortage in the summer as except two districts, the other six districts had received less rainfall. Under equal distribution of water, the GMIDC administration, on October 30, decided to release 8.6 TMC of water from the dams in Nashik and Ahmednagar districts.

The political leaders from these districts opposed the decision and pressured the administration and the government to refrain from the decision. This is the reason why the region failed to get water even after 20 days of the decision. In addition, the Supreme Court and High Court had not granted a stay on releasing of the water. Despite the court order, the government due to the pressure is not releasing the water, claimed the agitators.

Long queues of vehicles formed on Jalna Road and the traffic on both the sides of the busy road were disrupted. The agitators shouted slogans demanding rightful share of water for Marathwada, urging the water resources minister, opposing Vikhe Patil etc. The police requested the agitators to withdraw the agitation, but clarified that they will not unless the water is not released in the dam. At last the police used the force and pushed the agitators on one side of the road from Kranti Chowk to Cidco and in three hours detained all of them from Akashwani and Mondha Naka.

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Participation of thousands of protestors

Former minister Rajesh Tope, Shiv Sena spokesperson and MLA Sanjay Shirsat, MLA Suresh Warpudkar, former minister Anil Patel, former MLA Kalyan Kale, former legislatures Sanjay Waghchaure, Namdev Pawar, Annasaheb Mane, Amar Singh Pandit, MLA Badamrao Pandit, former mayor Nandkumar Ghodele, Shiv Sena district chief Rajendra Janjal, NCP district president Kishore Patil, Pandurang Tangde Patil, Khwaja Sharfuddin, Sudhakar Sonwane, BJP's Ramesh Adaskar, Kisan Sabha's Rajan Kshirsagar, former mayor Gajanan Barwal, Pooja More, Diksha Pawar, Harshada Shirsat, Shilparani Wadkar, Atul Gawande and thousands of other activists participated in the agitation.

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Former assembly speaker and MLA Haribhau Bagade arrived at the venue to convey the message of the deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis that the water from upstreams will be released in the Nath Sagar soon. However, he left the venue within 10 minutes after he found that the agitators were not ready to withdraw their agitation. Prior to leaving he spoke to media persons sharing the motive behind visiting the venue.