Forty-seven villages in eastern Rajasthan’s Karauli district have been without water from Panchna Dam for 15 years due to an unresolved conflict between the two communities that dominate the area – the Gurjars and the Meenas.The supply from the dam was cut by the district administration in 2006 when the Gurjars began an agitation for reservations under the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category in the town of Hindaun in Karauli district and the Meenas, who are already in that category, opposed them.But the Gurjars’ agitation for ST status soon turned into a demand for rights to the waters of Panchna Dam. This became the sticking point of the conflict, leaving the villages without water for 15 years because the administration refuses to restore the supply until the conflict is resolved.Beginning of a stalematePanchna Dam, about 180 km from Jaipur, is a medium irrigation project that was built on five rivers in eastern Rajasthan – Bhadrawati, Barkheda, Ata, Machi and Baisawar – in 1991. Thirty-five villages in its command area, the specific area around every dam that benefits from the release of its waters, as well as 12 other villages, received their irrigation and drinking water from the dam until 2006, when the Gurjars and the Meenas clashed.“The Gurjars blocked rail and road transport and closed shops in Hinduan,” said local journalist Sukhdev Dagur. “The Meenas protested these blockades. The administration closed the canals of Panchna Dam due to the fear of escalating tension between the two communities. Everything became normal after the protest, but the canals continue to be blocked by the administration,” Dagur told The Wire.The Gurjars had been demanding ST status to take advantage of the same reservations that had allowed the Meenas to progress as a community, said Suresh Foujdar, another local journalist.“The economic and social status of the Meenas and the Gurjars were the same just after independence, but when the Meenas received ST status, their representation in government jobs increased while the Gurjars lagged behind. When the Gurjars demanded to be included in the ST category too, the Meenas opposed it,” Foujdar told The Wire.But the Gurjars’ stir for ST status soon became a demand for rights to the dam waters.According to Ashok Dhabhai, president of the Gudla Sangharsh Samiti, an association of Gujjars who demand dam water rights, the Gurjars had been unaware before 2006 that they had any rights to water from the canals.“The universal law of water distribution of an irrigation project is this: the first right over dam water belongs to those whose water was stopped for dam construction. Prior to the construction of the Panchna Dam, the five rivers supplied water to 39 villages in nearby areas. Now the river water does not reach these villages. We have been saying that the dam water must first go to these 39 villages and then all the rest,” said Dhabhai.But the command areas of dams cannot easily be changed. In the case of Panchna Dam, when the plans had been drawn up, its command area included 35 villages and the canals were laid accordingly. As it happened, 12 other villages not in the command area also benefitted from the canals. All 47 of these villages happen to be Meena-dominated, according to Foujdar.On the other hand, the five rivers when they were free-flowing had informally supported the 39 villages that, according to Foujdar, are dominated by the Gurjars. The Gurjars lost access to the river waters when the dam was built and since their villages do not fall in the dam’s command area, they have no access to the canals either.“The Gurjars say it is their right to get Panchna water because the dam is built in their area. The Meenas, on the other hand, claim the command area was determined before the dam was built. It has been 15 years since the stalemate,” Sukhdev Dagur said.The politics of waterThe district administration will continue to block the water supply from the dam until the issue between the communities is resolved, said P.C. Berwal, the divisional commissioner of Bharatpur division and the chairman of the water distribution committee.“This is due to fears of the law and order situation going out of hand,” Berwal told The Wire.Meanwhile, Ramkesh Meena, an independent legislator from Gangapur city in Sawai Madhopur district, recently wrote to the Rajasthan State Human Rights Commission about the issue. Justice Gopal Krishna Vyas, chairman of the commission, took cognisance of the matter and has sought a report from the administration on July 14.“Panchna Dam has been a victim of politics for 15 years, About 10,000 hectares of land has turned barren; people are thirsty; the livestock is dying of thirst,” Ramkesh Meena told The Wire.Dr Kirodi Lal Meena, a Rajya Sabha member of parliament from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also believes that the stalemate is due to politics.“The root of this logjam is the steadfast attitude of some Gujjar leaders and the government’s patronage to them,” alleged Dr Meena.“The government should have taken action against them [the Gujjars]; instead it surrendered before them due to its political compulsions.”According to political analyst Tarun Dutt, the Gurjars have traditionally been supporters of the BJP while the Meenas tend to lean towards the Congress.“Even after several Gurjars were killed in police firing during the reservation agitations in 2007 and 2008, the community continued to vote for the BJP,” Dutt added.Dr Meena organised three big agitations against the blockage of the canals in 2007, 2010 and 2011. “But nothing happened,” he said.“All my struggles remained unfruitful.”During the 2010 agitation at Piloda railway station in Sawai Madhopur district, Dr Meena was sentenced to six months of imprisonment and slapped with a fine of Rs 1 lakh when a lower court found him guilty of violating section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. He has challenged this verdict in a higher court.In the last few years, social activists and young people have also formed associations to demand the restoration of canal water supply. A body called the Panchna Dam Command Area Parishad has written letters to the chief minister, ministers and several officers, asking for action.“At least 23 villages of Todabhim, Hindaun and Nadauti tehsils of Karauli district and 24 villages of Wazirpur tehsil of Sawai Madhopur district are dependent for water on Panchna. The dam is full of water but the water has not been released,” Raghuvir Prasad Meena, president of the Panchna Dam Command Area Parishad, told The Wire.The other sideAccording to Dhabhai, politics has nothing to do with the Gurjars’ demand.“We are only demanding our share of the water,” he told The Wire. “Some leaders of the other side have given this issue a political colour. It’s not only Meenas who live in the villages in the command area; every village has people of many castes. People of other communities also live in the 39 villages that are bereft of river water, not only the Gurjars.”But he remains inflexible over his community’s demands. “Until we get our rights, we won’t allow the canals to be restored,” he said.Dhabhai added that work on the lift canal, a system which lifts water from a dam and flows it into a canal system, is incomplete, which is partly why there is no water from the dam.However, according to Raghuvir Prasad Meena, work on the lift canal has long been completed.“Even the trial of the lift project was done last year. The fact is this lift project was never the focus of the Gudla Sangharsh Samiti – the project took 10 more years than the stipulated time to complete, but the samiti never protested the delay. Their intention is only to stop water to the villages in the command area,” alleged Raghuvir Prasad Meena.Berwal, the divisional commissioner, also said that work on the lift canal project has been completed.“In a meeting on July 8, members of the Gudla Sangharsh Samiti had some issues which were resolved by the administration. The samiti sought time to consult other members of the community before giving their green light to opening water supply to the command area. We will have another round of meetings soon,” said Berwal.Rajasthan’s water resources minister B.D. Kalla admitted that the supply of dam water in the Panchna command area has been interrupted due to community rivalry.“The government is seized of the matter. The water supply has been blocked for the last many years due to a lack of agreement between Gudla Sangharsh Samiti and the farmers of the command area. We will engage with both parties. The divisional commissioner has been tasked with resolving the logjam,” Kalla said.But Dr Kirodi Lal Meena is dissatisfied with the minister’s promise.“The divisional commissioner and other officers have held innumerable meetings in the area over this issue. If the government decides, it can restore the supply of water in a matter of a few minutes. No one has any power to stop water supply to a command area,” he told The Wire.Avadhesh Akodia is an independent journalist. He tweets @AvadheshJpr.
