Nagpur:
The 26-kilometre Bawanthadi Canal has run into trouble even before its inauguration. The inter-state project between Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, that was to supply irrigation and drinking water to 21 villages, have developed cracks so deep that the whole thing will have to be rebuilt for any water to run through.
The Maharashtra Irrigation Department has begun an inquiry following an NDTV expose into the Rs 40-crore project.
The irony is that for the last four years, the Vigilance and Quality Control officials of the Irrigation Department were not at all aware that cracks were setting in.
"I have given instructions to the higher authorities to inspect the whole thing, and after we receive the report, we shall take strict action... I don't think it's correct to make the names of builders public before the report is submitted," said Prafulla Zapke, Executive Director, VIDC .
The canal, at Tumsar in Vidarbha, would have proved a critical lifeline given the region's record of droughts and farmer suicides.
It was promised in 1975. Thirty six years later, instead of the promised water, the canal has only brought in another development fiasco.