Minor dam breached, 4 villages evacuated

Bhopal, Sep 1: The minor irrigation dam at Piplai in Raisen district, from where heavy seepage was reported in the past three days, breached around noon today.

Residents of four adjoining villages, including Piplai and Rainpura, had been evacuated and about 2,000 people shifted to relief camps, Raisen Collector Arun Bhatt said.

The dam, about 12 km from Raisen adjoining the Madhya Pradesh capital, was constructed in 1996 at a cost of Rs 1.50 crore with a total capacity of 1.8 million cubic metre. About 500 cusec water was flowing into a nullah after the breach.

Following detection of leak, the authorities made efforts to plug the leak. But the dam breached around noon today.

Mr Bhatt admitted that technical flaw was the cause of breach and an inquiry would be conducted to fix the responsibility. Heavy rains in the area also contiributed to the breach.

UNI