The Saryu canal scheme was started in the year 1978. It was inaugurated after 43 years with much fanfare but the 6,623 km long canal passing through Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Siddharthnagar, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Gorakhpur and Maharajganj in eastern UP is still incomplete. Where there is water in the canal, the fields are flooded. At many places the canal exists only on paper. Still, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claims that “52 per cent of the work on the canal was done in 39 years, while the rest of the work was done in just four and a half years”.In Gonda district, the work of excavation of the canal project from Parsa Godri to Dhanai Patti Rajbahwa started in the year 2003. The delay in the 22 km long canal to be built with Rs. 78 crore increased the cost. As a result, the gap between Parsa Godri-Dhanai Patti could not be completed, although on paper the canal had been completed in 2005 itself. Fake payment of Rs. 55 lakh was also made in the papers. When the matter came to light in 2017, a case was filed against four people including the then Executive Engineer of the Irrigation Department. But the matter soon went into cold storage.Not only this, land was taken from the farmers of Parsa Godri, Dhani Dhankhar, Salpur without notice. Angry farmers are still protesting. At the same time, water did not reach the fields of 10,000 farmers who had given up their land for the project. Farmers of Parsa Godri are demanding compensation at the new circle rate.Gonda’s Samajwadi Party leader Zeba Rizwan says that the release of water into the unfinished Saryu canal has cut embankment at several places and submerged crops. Even posting two Chief Engineers at Gonda and Ayodhya did not help.
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