Rising Almatti dam water submerges Bagalkot's hopes

Bagalkot, July 20: Residents in the backwaters of the Almatti dam have a new challenge to face. With the rising water level due to heavy showers, people now have to depend on just two ferries provided by the district administration to reach Bagalkot.

After the Bagalkot-Belagavi road was submerged, hundreds of villages were shifted. However, 11 villages continue to live in the area as the new place was very far from their workplace. Nevertheless, Bagalkot, which is merely 2 kilometers away from the village can now be reached only after covering 25 kilometers in a round about way. Pleas of a connecting bridge by the people of the village has fallen on deaf ears.

Residents of Kadampur, Yankanchi, Sindagi, Nekkaragundi, Sorakoppa, Sidnal and other villages say that they fear for their lives when they have to cross a swollen river Krishna during the monsoon.

"It is difficult to move out of the village as the district administration has set up rehabilitation centres very far away from here. Also, the compensation offered is not enough to buy alternative farm land. But in the bargain we are forced to spend nearly half our daily wages on bus fares to take the roundabout route to Bagalkot. Our children too have a problem getting to their schools", said one of the residents of Salagundi.

OneIndia News