Heavy rains cause flooding, damage crops

Excessive flow of water into Shimsha river led to the breaching of Bananjipanth barrage causing damage to the land lying close to the barrage and destroying crops on Friday. The loss is estimated at Rs 20 lakh.

To accumulate water in K Honalgere tank, a barrage was constructed across Shimsha river for the Bananjipanth lift irrigation project during the tenure of the former chief minister S M Krishna. Due to the substandard quality of work, the barrage had collapsed even before it was inaugurated. Subsequently, it was repaired twice. When the barrage breached for the second time last year, the Cauvery Niravari Nigam had come forward to repair the same six months ago.

As a temporary measure it had laid sand bags as retaining wall across the river. Two months ago, the work had come to a standstill and the contractor in charge of the work had disappeared, say the villagers. Due to heavy rain in the past two days in the Shimsha river region and the heavy inflow of water in the river, the barrage collapsed for the third time even before it could be repaired.

As many as 100 coconut palms belonging to six farmers fell to the ground, while banana, sugarcane and paddy crops have been destroyed in the area surrounding the barrage.