Irregularities worth crores in anicut construction under CAMPA scheme

Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi, May 30: About 40 anicuts constructed under CAMPA scheme in Khodri forest area has proved to be failure and no water is getting filled inside these anicuts. These constructions worth crores have proved to be non-starter.
This forest area which falls under Marwahi Forest Division was given sanction for 40 anicuts for the revival of Arpa river as part of Chief Minister’s dream project. Its responsibility was given to Khodri forest area and immediate sanction was given( 2019-20) for the construction of two different type of anicuts at a cost of Rs 15 and 30 lakh.
In most of the constructions government appoints engineers but in this case of constructions worth crores, forest ranger, deputy ranger and bit guards were given the responsibility without any technical officer. These anicuts have mostly collapsed even before first monsoon rains and not a single drop was collected in these anicuts.
For the conservation of water and to maintain the water level in Arpa river throughout the year, sanctions worth crores were given and accordingly constructions in 10,000 sq meter was completed but nowhere construction is visible. Narwa Yojana which is an important project of Chhhattisgarh government has lost it shine in this area and forest department is trying to hide their failures while forest officials are allegedly minting hefty amount.
In every construction of the government a notice board is erected at the site which displays every details about the project including cost incurred on it. But in case of anicut constructions no display board was displayed and common people were deprived about cost incurred in construction and other details. In this anicut construction about 500-600 cu m 20 mm ballast was to be used, but actually 70-80 cu m was used at the spot. In the same way for the construction of 30 m long anicut construction, estimate for the use of 5000 cement bags was shown and accordingly money was withdrawn.
The villagers confirmed that only 700-800 bags of cement were used at the spot. The other irregularities in the construction which came to fore that no works were done as per estimate and standard construction procedures. The iron rods used were of 16 mm which is not used in the construction of anicut. The public representatives and common people have complained about irregularities to the collector and DFO has been given the responsibility to conduct probe.