7 cops injured in Bilaspur: Ali Khad water scheme won’t affect downstream supplies, says HP govt

Amid protests against the Kikkar–Navgoan drinking water supply scheme on Ali Khad at the border of Bilaspur and Solan districts, the government clarified that the scheme will not have any adverse impact on villages downstream in Bilaspur district.

Seven police personnel were injured on Tuesday when an angry mob pelted stones on them after being stopped from entering the construction area of the water supply scheme. In the FIR, complainants alleged that protestors forcefully entered the construction area and tried to damage the machinery.

The villagers in the nearby panchayats have been protesting against the construction of water supply schemes for the past 20 days as they have apprehensions regarding the Navgoan scheme reducing the water flow downstream.

The villagers alleged that a water project is being constructed to benefit an industrial unit in Arki while it will hit other water supply schemes downstream. About 400 villagers gathered for the maha panchayat opposing the construction of the project.

A spokesperson of the jal shakti department said that a joint action committee was constituted to resolve the apprehensions regarding the ₹6 crore Navgaon scheme that is under construction in the Arki sub-division of Solan.

He said that a few anti-social elements were giving misguiding statements and spreading rumours that the water from the Navgaon rivulet drinking water supply scheme was only for some particular units, which he strongly refuted saying that it was for a population of around 9,000 from 71 villages of eight-gram panchayats of Solan.