Vidarbha, Maharashtra: This canal took over 20 years to build. Its foundation stone was laid by Rajiv Gandhi way back in 1988. But now the 23-kilometre-long canal which was meant to irrigate one of India's driest belts - Vidharbha - a region infamous for its farmer suicides, will now be demolished for extremely poor quality construction.
The irony is the company who built the first one will now construct the new one too. And naturally the farmers are angry. Vithoba Samrit a farmer says ''First send the contractor who did this poor job to jail.'' Prafulla Zapke, executive director of the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation concurs that the contractor has done a shoddy job. ''The strength of the concrete layers was not as they were designed. Quality of work is below standard. Such acts of omission should never happen. But these have happened.''
The canal's construction, or lack of it, is a telling example of how corruption eats into the path to progress. The irony deepens when you consider that thousands of villagers were displaced to build this canal. With little to show for their efforts, officials and the contractors will have much explaining to do, as to how serious their efforts are this time round,
The irony is the company who built the first one will now construct the new one too. And naturally the farmers are angry. Vithoba Samrit a farmer says ''First send the contractor who did this poor job to jail.'' Prafulla Zapke, executive director of the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation concurs that the contractor has done a shoddy job. ''The strength of the concrete layers was not as they were designed. Quality of work is below standard. Such acts of omission should never happen. But these have happened.''
The canal's construction, or lack of it, is a telling example of how corruption eats into the path to progress. The irony deepens when you consider that thousands of villagers were displaced to build this canal. With little to show for their efforts, officials and the contractors will have much explaining to do, as to how serious their efforts are this time round,
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