Bhadoi, new ''land splitting victim'' in UP

Bhadoi, Jun 20 (UNI) After series of land breaching incidents in Bundelkhand, Etawah, Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Pratapgarh and Mohanlalganj districts of Uttar Pradesh, the reports of new land fissures in Santravidas Nagar, also known as Bhadoi, have created fresh complications for the state government.

The fresh land openings at Sonpur, Amwa-Mafi and Itehra villages of Sant Ravidasnagar have created panic among people in the last couple of days, reports said.

Senior officials visited the area and asked people to stay calm.

As per the reports, similar land breaching incidents had come to fore in Sonpur and Anganpur villages of Bhadoi two years back.

Till now, land fissures were reported from 25 places, including 13 in Hamirpur district.

The Uttar Pradesh government and scientists Geological Survey of India (GSI) had already ruled out any serious concern on the reports of land cracks in different parts of the state and observed the exploitation of ground water as the main reason behind the cracks.

The state government had also demanded a bill regarding control excess withdrawal of ground water and its compulsory recharging.

On June 17, State chief secretary Atul Kumar Gupta had called up a meeting with senior GSI scientists to assess the situation after the masses panicked due to several incidents of land cracks in Bundelkhand region, Allahabad, Etawah, Kanpur and yesterday observed in Kakori locality of the state capital.

Mr Gupta had told mediapersons that there was no reason to panic as the scientists of the GSI claimed that such incidents were reported in the month of June to August.

The officials had also denied mining of minerals or sand were the reason behind the ground fissure openings.

The GSI had even installed Micro Earthquake Monitoring (MEQ) equipement in Surajpur village of Hamipur district for the next 15 days to rule out the possibility of micro-tremors.

Out of 822 development blocks in 71 districts of the state, the ground water level in over 450 blocks were seriously affected, the scenario was giving sleepless nights to the state authorities, the SGWD officials had said here.

Recently, a joint survey by Central Ground Water Department and the SGWD showed that the situation of ground water in 22 development blocks of 13 districts was found to be over-exploited' and critical', whereas, the water level in 75 development blocks of 29 districts was 'semi-critical'.

Such land splitting incidents had also occurred in other parts of the world, including China and Arizona in US, for the same reason.

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