Villagers go on mass hunger strike against lake at Shelgaon in Maharashtra's Nanded Shelgaon (Maharashtra): Usually, people and governments of different states fight for irrigation and drinking water, but the residents of Shelgaon village in Maharashtra started a movement against water. The entire Shelgaon village took part in hunger strike during Republic Day celebrations to demand the cancellation of the lake sanctioned in their village.
The main concern of the villagers was that they would lose their houses and agricultural lands if the lake is dug up. Shelgaon, a village of 1500 people in Nanded district, is primarily dependent on agriculture. An irrigation pond has been approved for Shelgaon in 2021. But as the village's agriculture and many houses will be lost for the lake, the villagers have started opposing the lake.
On Wednesday, not a single cooking stove in this village was lit. The entire village was on hunger strike. Shelgaon gets abundant water from Limboti dam. The farmers here are prosperous because of the water, but they consider the lake as a big threat to their land. Nearly 650 hectares of land will be lost, and more than 300 farmers will become landless.
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Moreover, the village also has to be shifted. Therefore, the villagers have taken the stance of opposing the lake. The villagers took up the issue with the local administration. They took a unanimous decision to continue the agitation till the lake is cancelled. Contrary to this, many villages in Loha, Kandahar taluk, are drought prone.
They have to walk long distances for a bucket of water. The villagers are demanding that the government should build ponds where they are needed instead of where they are not. They are asking what they will have to eat when agriculture is gone. "Where should we go? We have built houses worth ten to twenty lakhs. Will they build such houses for us?" asked Lilavati Kadam, the senior woman of the village.
The villagers are worried that when they are very happily living, this crisis came up. What will happen to the children? "No pond is required. One hundred percent agriculture is under irrigation. Loha-Kandhar taluk has many hilly areas. The lake should be shifted there," said Pawan Vadje, a young man of the village.
Govind Kadam, another villager, expressed concern that they were not even informed about the lake and people were coming for the survey. If this lake is made, the entire Shelgaon will go under water, he added.
