On Monday the Keonjhar Citizen Forum handed over a memorendum to Union Minister of Jal Shakti Bishweswar Tudu, expressing their concern over inordinate delay in completion of the Kanpur Irrigation project on the Baitarani river near Basudebpur under Joda block of Keonjhar district.

President of the forum Kiran Sahu revealed that the Kanpur  irrigation project which started  in the year 1991- 92  was estimated to be completed within a period of five years at a cost of Rs 428.62 crore. However, more than 30 years have passed but the project couldn't be completed although the project cost has escalated to Rs 1,801 crore as per estimation in the year 2013 and out of this, Rs 1,583.11 crore has already been spent by March 31 ,2018.

It is expected that the project cost will cross Rs 2,700 crore in the coming days because extra Rs 500 crore is required to be spent for correcting the faulty implemention of the design at the foundation level of the reservoir of the water at the catchment area, he told.

Sahu further revealed that there is no certainity  in the success of  the renovation work  because the technology which will be imported from German  is going to be experimented for the first time in the Kanpur project.

The project is expected to irrigate 48,000 hectares of land in 238 villages and two lakh farmers in the villages have been waiting for completion of the ambitious project.  But the prolonged delays have dashed their hope, the memorandum said.

However, the Union Minister assured the forum that the project would be completed by 2023.

He is said that there is no  scarcity of fund from the Central Government but it is getting delayed due to poor implemention, which is  duty of the State Government.

Earlier ,Tudu was accorded a grand welcome at the circuit house in Keonjhar by many  BJP leaders and workers led by Sadar MLA Mohan Mahji and others.