In poll-bound Malwa region water row hits Madhya Pradesh chief minister

JABALPUR: Two days ahead of polling in Malwa region, a water row, involving chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's ambitious Narmada-Kshipra river linking project, has come under the Election Commission's scanner. Congress party has charged the government with "sponsored gimmickry designed to influence voting in Malwa region".
While farmers from Ujjain cried foul claiming that they were not benefitted by the river linking project and Kshipra had gone dry damaging their crops, now just before polling the river seems to be in full spate.
Congress candidates from Ujjain and Dewas Lok Sabha constituency, Premchand Guddu and Sajjan Singh Verma, who had pegged their election campaign on the shrunk and stinking Kshipra on which state government had spent Rs 430 crore worth public money, have now, accused the government of duping voters by a quick fix solution of releasing water to make the river appear full before polling day on May 24.
In a formal complaint addressed to CEC on April 20, Vikas Yadav, representative of Guddu, termed the government move a violation of model code of conduct by misuse of official paraphernalia and demanded stringent action.
Meanwhile, Verma has approached the commission crying foul over the "insidious designs to siphon off water to Ujjain to impact polls".
"The release of dam water from Saturday night will hit our natural water supply in Dewas and leave people parched," he complained on April 20 asking for action for perpetrators of the government-sponsored fraud.
And, as netas lock horns the issue has given rise to much public concern in the region. The mega project launched on February 25, just before model code of conduct came into effect, was touted by CM as panacea for all water woes in the arid Malwa plateau.
The project, he promised, would supply drinking water to 72 towns 3,000 villages and irrigate 16 lakh acres of land in the belt. "However, within days of grand inaugural ceremony the site began to resemble a dirty nullah," said Dr Sanjeev Jain, a local businessman in Ujjain.
Jain claimed that after local media started highlighting the plight of Kshipra, government, in a knee jerk reaction, tried raising water level in the river by releasing water from Dewas leather factory. This worsened the situation as the entire stretch began to stink unbearably and after the Congress grabbed the opportunity to catapult it into an election issue, the government has finally opened the sluice gates of Dewas dam, he pointed out.
Thakur Chain Singh a farmer in Sukkar Khedi in Indore district is concerned at the sudden swell in Kshipra. "It was all dried and dead just last week.... seems too good to be true," the man remarked.
Sheru Patel, a farmer from Ujjaini village in Indore district, sounded morose. His crop is already damaged due to non-availability of irrigating facilities in Ujjaini. Paucity of water here has affected at least 70 villages, he declared.