Rain threatens Urmodi PAPs

SATARA, JUNE 15: The 60-odd villages in the Urmodi valley, located on the scenic slopes of Western Ghats north of Satara, supply some 20,...

SATARA, JUNE 15: The 60-odd villages in the Urmodi valley, located on the scenic slopes of Western Ghats north of Satara, supply some 20,000 litres of milk every day.

For the last couple of days, the milk producers here are running up major losses with their lone transportation facility, the State Transport buses grinding to a halt with. The reason -the southwest monsoon has arrived.

The milk simply curdled as the bus failed to arrive when the ST stopped the services to the villages linked to the rest of the world by a kuchha road in the face of the advancing monsoon, as it does elsewhere in the State.

Anxieties have peaked for a few hundred project affected peasants PAPs from the Urmodi valley who have been hopelessly facing a rehabilitation- related uncertainties, with the rain on them. The PAPs are sure the rainwould leave them marooned for another year.

Evacuated and rehabilitated in the command area of the contentious dam, a few hundred PAPs are staying put in their own villages along the Urmodi river.

The project contractors have created big ponds. The culverts are blocked and the water flowing from the hill slopes into the river will gush into the fields and houses of the villagers living in the lowlying areas, said sarpanch of Parali village Ashok Kotele.

The Urmodi Dam project work has been halted by the agitating PAPs from March 26. The Aurangabad-based contractor removed the machinery when the monsoon set in. Now the project work will start after the monsoon.

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The project victims have been pressing for the difference of amount paid to their lost land in 1986 rate and the present rates which amount about Rs. 6 crores. The government did not pay the amount and therefore the villagers refused to leave their place and launched an agitation at the dam site.

Minister of State for Revenue Udayanraje Bhosale who represents the region in the State assembly had assured on Thursday last that he would discuss the issue with minister concerned. He got Rs 6 crore sanctioned within a fortnight. He also had declared that he was prepared to quit the ministerial berth, if the amount was not cleared by the government as promised.