Minister for Water Resource Govind M. Karjol said on Friday that the government has made sufficient allocation for irrigation projects in the State and was committed to implementing them.
He was speaking after inaugurating a stakeholders’ consultation meeting on implementation of Emergency Action Plan (EAP) for KRS, Kabini, Harangi and Chikkahole dams, held in Srirangapatana taluk of Mandya district. The meeting was jointly conducted Karnataka Water Resources Department (KaWRD) and Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP).
The Minister said the allocation in this year’s budget for the Upper Krishna Project was ₹5,000 crore while ₹3,000 crore each had been allotted for completion of the Upper Bhadra project and Yettinahole project. This is apart from ₹1,000 crore for Mekedatu drinking water project, he added.
Though there was opposition to the Mekedatu project from Tamil Nadu, the Government was committed to implementing it to meet the drinking water requirements of Bengaluru, said Mr. Karjol.
He said there were 231 dams in the State and the area under irrigation was 30.66 lakh hectares. Under minor irrigation projects 10 lakh hectares was being irrigated by minor projects and 16 lakh hectares brought under irrigation from borewells. There was scope for bringing an additional 10 lakh hectares under irrigation and if completed it could help in creating additional employment besides eliminating rural poverty.
Mr. Karjol expressed concern over encroachment of water bodies and release of untreated sewage and pollutants by industries and said that it was destroying the source. It is not merely the government’s responsibility to conserve environment but the duty of every individual.
Sluice gates
With reference to replacement of sluice gates of the KRS dam the Minister said that they will prevent leakage from the reservoirs besides strengthening the structure. The original gates that were replaced are 80 years old and the Minister said that he has instructed the officials not to put them to scrap but preserve and exhibit them. This will create awareness among the public of the kind of technology used when the dam was completed in 1931 and how it served the purpose all these years. Mr.Karjol also announced that funds would be released for embellishing the Brindavan Garden which is a tourist spot but did not spell out any details.
Srirangapatna MLA Ravindra Srikantaiah, Malavalli MLA Annadani, Nanjangud MLA Harshavardhan, Secretary of KaWRD Krishnamurthy B Kulkarni, resource persons from NRSC-ISRO, Geological Survey of India, and fire and emergency services were among those present.
