In a curious case,a 50-year-old dam,Rogada dam in Janjgir-Champa district of Chhattisgarh,has been sold twice to a private firm,Wardha Power Company Private Limited first on a 99-year lease in December 2008 for which the company paid Rs 16.6 crore and,two years later,as part of a transfer of dam for which the company again paid Rs 3.32 crore. The process started in August 2008,when Janjgir-Champa Collector Alok Awasthi transferred 207.46 hectares of land belonging to the Water Resources Department,which included the 52.85-hectare Rogada dam,to the Chhattisgarh State Industrial Development Corporation (CSIDC). The Water Resources Department was reportedly not informed about the move. Four months later,the CSIDC gave the land to Wardha on a 99-year-lease. The private firm immediately demolished the dam and began constructing a power plant despite protests from locals. The dam irrigated five-six surrounding villages. It had good storage capacity. The demolition affected many of us, said a local farmer,Arun Rana. Interestingly,in February 2010,Chief Secretary P Joy Ommen held a meeting with Revenue Secretary Sunil Kujur,the then Water Resources Secretary C K Khaitan,the then Industry Secretary P Ramesh Kumar and the then Chief Engineer (Water Resources) K K Mandhata,during which they agreed to transfer the dam (which had been demolished by then) to Wardha,which was already in possession of the land. Wardha paid Rs 3.32 crore for the transfer. An inquiry has revealed that no official note seeking Rs 3.32 crore for transfer of the dam was issued after the February 2010 meeting. The minutes of the meeting were handed over to Wardha,which then paid the amount. Officials of Wardha,a unit of KSK Power,declined to comment when asked why the firm had paid again when it had already taken the land on a 99-year lease. The matter was first raised in the Assembly in February 2011 by Congress MLA Mohammad Akbar. An all-party Assembly committee was set up to probe the matter. Kujur and Water Resources Secretary N K Aswal have already deposed before the committee,which is set to summon Ommen and Khaitan. Speaking to The Sunday Express,Ommen said: I did not know that the dam did not exist or that the land had been transferred (to CSIDC,and subsequently leased to Wardha). I called the meeting only to evaluate the price of the dam and resolve an inter-departmental dispute. When the Water Resources Department realised that there was a dam on the land,they claimed that they should also be given an amount. He added: None of us present at the meeting knew that the dam was not there or about the transfer. Water Resources officials were supposed to know it. But Water Resources Minister Hemchand Yadav said the land did not belong to my department,so no question of sale by us. On the other hand,B L Rai,engineer-in-chief of the water resources department,admitted that it was our property. Asked how a Collector had transferred their land,he replied: Ask the Collector. baandh ko lekar wo bhag thode jate (the company would not have run away with the dam). When contacted,the then Water Resources Secretary C K Khaitan refused to comment,saying that the matter was before an Assembly panel. The Sunday Express has a copy of a letter dated June 20,2008 from Wardha to Khaitan,seeking an NOC for using the land in Rogada tank,indicating that he knew about the lease. Strangely,despite the land being transferred to CSIDC and the subsequent lease to Wardha,Water Resources Department continued to earn money from awarding fishing rights in the dam till as late as May this year. The dam had already been demolished by then.
