CHANDIGARH, July 20: The silt has come to stay here. Hundreds of acre-feet of silt dredged by the Bhakra and Beas Management Board (BBMB) from the balancing reservoir built to feed the Dehar Power House at Sundernagar, is dumped into the Suketi Khad which flows through the Balh Valley to fall into the Beas river at Mandi. Come rains and the silt gets spilled over onto the farms on both sides of at least 18-kilometre stretch of the khad, damaging vegetation and crops. Wheat, maize and paddy are the major crops sown here.The spread of the silt has spelled doom for the flora and fauna and damaged cropped land in more than a dozen villages located in the fertile Balh Valley. Having lost their crops to the silt over the years, the farmers here have lost hopes too. Losses to crops are estimated and the affected farmers paid pittance of compensation. And this has gone on for years. But channelisation of the khad which can provide a lasting solution to the problem, is not even talked about.On a visit to the area yesterday, this reporter saw the damage. Raj Kumari, president, gram panchayat, Chatter, told ENS that at least 13 gram panchayats of Mandi District had been affected by the silt. The farmers of Kalahod, Khilra, Chatter, Jugahan, Soora, Malthehd, Bhaugrotu, Dadawe, Bagla, Gagal, Chandyal, Behna and Ghatta, were the worst affected, she added.Nikka Ram, Secretary, Sundernagar Integrated Rural Development Agency, said that channelisation of the Suketi khad was the only answer to the problem, His sentiments were echoed by Baldev Chand, a former gram panchayat pradhan, Tulsi Ram and Damodar Dass, former MLA's. Ganga Singh, former MP and a progressive farmer, also stressed the need for channelising the khad. Dile Ram, former minister and senior vice-president, state unit of the BJP, said that channelisation should be done if the fields in the Balh Valley were to be saved from being reduced to a desert.However, Chairman of the BBMB Major General R.R. Oberoi (Retd) described the proposal as ``neither possible nor viable'' from technical point of view. Natural rivulets were never channelised anywhere, General Oberoi added.Asked about the compensation paid to the farmers, K.D. Lakhanpal, SDO (Civil), said that 20 families in the Sundernagar sub-division were paid Rs 8,000 in 1994; ten families each were paid Rs 10,000 in 1995-96 and 1996-97.And their number came down to three families in 1997-98 which were paid only Rs 3000.The 370-hectare-metre reservoir had been constructed by the Beas-Satluj Link Project (BSL) at Sundernagar to meet the requirements of the Dehar Power House. The silt is dredging from the reservoir by the BBMB to facilitate the supply of silt-free water to the Dehar Power House.The designers of the BSL project had anticipated about 1750 acre-feet of silt-load entering the water system at Pandoh annually. About 428 acre-feet of coarse sediments were to be removed through the silt ejector put up at Baggi. About 1,322 acre-feet of silt was expected to enter the balancing reservoir. To remove about 650 acre-feet of silt, one dredger was procured from Europe in 1980. Since 1983 it has been in operation in two shifts.But the silt-load in the reservoir has gone up one-and-a-half times during the last more than four years. The figure touched 1900 acre-feet after the rainy season of 1995. The dredger is at present working in three shifts to eject the silt into the Suketi khad. "But why can't the authorities nip the evil in the bud and channelise the khad", asked most of the farmers this reporter talked to. "This will not only check the flow of the silt into the reservoir but also save the power house and their lands," they added.
