The state’s public health department built the mud dam, which was supposed to be a lifeline for the villagers, in 1991. Apart from supplying water for drinking and irrigation, the water body that the dam created was also meant to bring the water table up in the area. The government of India had funded the project. But the construction was so bad that the dam got washed away.

“Due to incessant rains that year, the water level in the dam rose beyond its retaining capacity. The government officials were supposed to release the extra water but nobody visited the dam. And then, it simply got washed away,” recollects sarpanch Bachna Ram.

The villagers immediately approached the government officials who panicked. They visited the place and instructed the villagers not to talk about the incident.

“They promised another dam in the same area. But they never returned. We met them several times and the officials claimed they had sent the new design to the government and that they were waiting for the official sanction,” says Krishan Lal, a villager who works as a Class IV employee with the Public Health Department in Chandigarh.

“They were trying to buy time by asking us not to disclose the incident. They could have initiated an inquiry against the officials who used substandard construction material,” said Piare Lal.

Partap Singh, Executive Engineer, Mohali, confirmed that the dam had been washed away. “The matter is 18 years old and I was not in charge of the area. I have just taken over. Though I can’t tell you why the dam was washed away. But it’s true that no inquiry was conducted into the matter,” he said.

... contd.