Residents of a border village in Uttar Pradesh's Pilibhit district have called off their indefinite protest after receiving firm assurances from top district officials and a local legislator regarding crucial flood protection work along the Sharda river.
Protest Ends With High-Level Assurances
The indefinite dharna, staged by villagers at Nujalha Nakta village panchayat, was suspended on Sunday. This settlement is the last village in Pilibhit district, situated directly on the India-Nepal border. The decision came after District Magistrate Gyanendra Singh and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Puranpur, Babu Ram Paswan, personally intervened. They pledged to initiate long-awaited flood protection measures along the vulnerable Sharda river embankment.
The protest began on Friday with the primary goal of highlighting the severe flood risk the community faces every monsoon. The villagers' central concern is a specific, 180-metre-long damaged section of the embankment. They fear this breach could lead to catastrophic flooding if not repaired before the rainy season.
Damaged Embankment and a Rejected Project
In a swift response to the agitation, DM Gyanendra Singh took concrete steps. On Saturday, he dispatched a formal letter to the Chief Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh government. The letter urgently requests approval for the necessary flood protection project. Demonstrating his commitment, Singh visited the protest site himself. In a significant move, he spoke directly with the Principal Secretary of the Irrigation Department over the phone, with protesters listening in. He assured the gathered residents that the protective work would begin within one month.
Village head Ramjeevan Sarkar provided critical background. He explained that the 180-metre breach occurred back in 2024. It was caused by an exceptionally heavy discharge from the Banbasa barrage, which released a massive 4.6 lakh cusecs of water into the Sharda river. This damage has left the inhabitants of over a dozen villages exposed to severe flooding for the past two consecutive monsoon seasons.
Sarkar raised another alarming issue. He pointed to ongoing apron and slope pitching work on the Sharda river near the international border. He warned that this activity could dangerously divert floodwaters from the Sharda and its Nepalese tributaries straight into Indian villages if the damaged embankment remains unrepaired.
Technical Hurdles and a Final Warning
Adding official weight to the villagers' fears, Ashutosh Kumar, the Executive Engineer of the Flood Control Division, confirmed a major setback. He revealed that a Rs 9 crore project for the embankment's repair was submitted to the state government last year. However, this proposal was rejected by the Flood Control Department's Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) during a meeting in Lucknow on December 4, 2025. The reasons for this rejection were not specified publicly.
District Magistrate Singh described his discussions with state officials as "fruitful." He stated, "They assured timely action in approving the project and allocating the requisite funds." Despite these assurances, the villagers have issued a stark final warning. They have declared that if officials fail to start the flood protection work within the promised one-month timeframe, they may resort to a collective ‘Jal Samadhi’ protest, a drastic form of demonstration.
