Government today announced a practical and realistic solution to provide irrigation and drinking water 135 villages in North Gujarat. This includes the entire Banaskantha district, including Palanpur and Vadgam talukas. According to the government’s announcement, 156 lakes in 73 villages of 4 talukas of Banaskantha will be filled with Narmada water. More than 300 cusecs of water will be lifted from the main canal of Narmada through a 77 km long pipeline at Kasra-Dantiwada.
Apart from this, works worth Rs192 crores have also been sanctioned for Dindrol Mukteshwar reservoir pipeline to bring water to Mukteshwar Dam. This water from Narmada will be diverted to Mukteshwar Dam, which is a reservoir that has been drying up for a long time. The pipeline project will benefit 33 lakes in 24 villages of Vadgam taluka and 9 lakes in five villages of Patan and Siddhpur talukas.
This announcement comes a day after Congress-backed Independent MLA Jignesh Mewani hinted at agitation over the ongoing water crisis in Banaskantha and his constituency Vadgam. Yesterday, he had warned that protests will be held if the state government did not come up with a good plan to provide water to the said regions by filling up Karamawat Lake and Mukteshwar Dam. He had demanded that the government allocate a budget and come up with a strong plan for the purpose. He had further said that he would be meeting with CM Patel one last time to discuss the matter.
Earlier, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani had accompanied local representatives to make representations on the issue of water scarcity in Karmawat Lake, Mukteshwar Dam, and Banaskantha district, on which the government announced a budget of Rs19 crore. Now, once again, the government has made a positive announcement on the water issue in Banaskantha.
