Waregaon ash bund collapse case: Affected farmers get compensation after 10 months

Staff Reporter

The 11 farmers of Waregaon village who lost their crops and agriculture land in Waregaon ash bund collapse incident last year, got compensation from the administration after 10 months on Wednesday. On October 4 last, Waregaon ash bund collapsed following heavy rains leading to ash slurry entering in adjacent agriculture fields. After the incident, the administration conducted panchnama and sent the report to the Revenue Department for calculating compensation. However, the affected farmers struggled a lot to get the compensation which they received after 10 months, on Wednesday.

The ash bund breach affected total 2.50 Ha land. Whereas, the administration released a fund of Rs 1,82,545 as compensation for affected farmers. Pawan Deepak Gupta, Sanjay Fakirchand Gurav, Deorao Gangaram Pande, Jivatu Govinda Deure, Ketan Ishwar Araspure, Shriram Gondane, Sarla Deshpande, Ghanshyam Gharat, Mohd Nawab Sheikh, Shobha Girish and Nayana Farkase are the affected farmers who got compensation at a programme held at Waregaon village. The Waregaon ash bund breach has been happening every year during monsoon, at least for past two years. This year too, in June, the ash bund breach leading to loss to nine farmers, as fly ash water entered their fields. Since the 11 farmers, who got affected last year, and received the compensation on Wednesday, the 9 farmers hit this year may have to wait for their turn to get compensated by the administration till next year.

Khaperkheda Thermal Power Station is dumping fly ash regularly in Waregaon ash bund. During monsoon the bund gets overflow causing its collapse. Former Environment Minister Aditya Thackeray visited Waregaon and interacted farmers and officials of MahaGenco and instructed them to utilise the fly ash 100 per cent and pay the compensation to the farmers but the situation remained the same and farmers are still facing similar threat every monsoon for last two years. District Collector Dr Vipin Itankar had recently asked MahaGenco to dump fly ash into the quarries under the jurisdiction of district administration.