Water from Osmanabad’s Sina-Kolegaon Dam, which was allegedly released at the behest of Congress MLA Dilip Mane from South Solapur, never reached his constituency after the supply was stopped on Tuesday. The supply was cut off after there was a breach in the condition that the water would only be used for drinking purposes.
The issue of release of water from the Sina-Kolegaon Dam for the Solapur district had created a lot of bad blood between the Congress and NCP. Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had decided to release water, despite opposition from NCP leaders in Osmana-bad. The NCP alleged that the decision was taken under pressure from Union minister Sushilku-mar Shinde, who supported Mr Mane’s demand.
Water was to reach South Solapur, which is at a distance of 156 kilometres from the dam, filling as many as 22 Kolhapur Type reservoirs. However, in two days, nine KT reservoirs were filled in Kamhate, Madha and Mohal talukas of Solapur — constituencies of NCP MLAs Shyamal Bagal, minister Laxman Dobale and Baban Shinde.
However, since the water was used for agricultural purposes, the supply was stopped. Thus, the water never reached constituency of Mr Mane at whose behest it was released after much deliberation.
“It is true that the three talukas in Solapur to which water reached have NCP MLAs. However, it’s a coincidental that water could not reach South Solapur. We have in fact opposed the condition, as we knew that it would be difficult to not expect people to use water for agriculture while it travels 156 km,” said minister Laxman Dobale, one of the three NCP MLAs from Solapur.
In a meeting held on Saturday, the CM had decided to release water for Solapur. However, a condition was laid that if the water is used for any purpose other than drinking, the collector would not only take action against the defaulter, but the supply from the dam would also be stopped. The water was released amidst heavy bandobast on Sunday evening.