Title - JSW Steel works on despite High Court ban

SANDUR/BELLARY: JSW Steel Company has laid a railway track over the Hulikunta tank violating the HC stay order. The track which is laid on the right side of the canal blocks irrigation for agriculture lands in Hulikunta, Lakshmipura and Bhujanganagar of Sandur taluk. Over 1,618 acres of agriculture land of the farmers cannot get the Hulikunta tank water due to the railway track in survey number 52/4 and 52/5B. In 1979, Water Resource Department had constructed the Hulikunta tank in Sundur to provide water for irrigation throughout the year. The tank has adequate water in the summer but the farmers are deprived of the water. The district is reeling under severe drought and adding to this, the JSW Steel has added to the farmers distress. The Water Resource Department had served a notice to JSW Steel to halt the laying of the track over the canal but JSW set aside the notice and completed the tracks over the canal. “JSW Steel has not made any alternative arrangement for supply of water. It could have made a small water channel but it did not consider it,” said farmers. Another farmer said, “Forget about making alternative arrangement for the supply of water, it did not even make any path or road to reach our land.” Repeated efforts to halt the laying of tracks proved useless, they claimed.