Dam breaks, charges fly thick ’n fast

‘‘I don’t have factual details but according to my information small drought relief works were being carried out on top of the dam and they broke first,’’ Singh says.

TBS activists contest that anicuts and johads built behind the check dam could not resist the pressure of the water and broke first, increasing the impact on their dam and washing it away. Further, they add they were denied permission by the district administration to strengthen their dam in June.

Superintending Engineer of the Irrigation Department R.C. Saini says: ‘‘There is no question of giving permission to an illegal dam…This dam was not built technically, it had no cut-off trench and we are not surprised that it gave way in the rains.’’

The Irrigation Department has always maintained that the dam was ‘‘illegal’’. During an inspection of the 30-feet-high mud and sand dam in June 2001, the Department declared it both dangerous and illegal.

Meanwhile, the Ruparel Nadi Bachchao Samiti has filed a petition in court against the TBS stating that the dam should not have been built on the Ruparel river. The TBS says the dam was not on the river, but on a tributary.