The State government will take stringent steps to remove encroachments from river beds and banks, in the Krishna basin, Irrigation Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi said in Belagavi on Saturday.
Addressing a meeting of officers of revenue, irrigation, forest, and geology departments in all the districts of Mumbai Karnataka division, the Minister said that the State government was very serious about encroachment removal on water bodies.
“At first, we will take up identifying encroachments in Malaprabha, Ghataprabha and Hiranyakeshi rivers in Belagavi district and the Bellary Nala that flows in Belagavi city. We will also extend the operation to other river systems later,” the Minister said.
“It is very obvious that the rivers have been encroached. When we were children, we used to go swimming in the Malaprabha, that had a wide expanse. But now its size has been reduced significantly. That is leading to flooding in the rivers and deposition of silt in dams. Rivers can be protected by removing encroachments,” he said.
However, this has to be done on a systematic way using scientific methods. Once that is done, we will ensure that they are all removed, he said.
A committee of officers led by Regional Commissioner Amlan Aditya Biswas would be in charge of the project. The government would provide all necessary funds for the project.
The Minister later told journalists that the issue of sand mining and its effects would also be considered by the committee. It had begun a drone survey to identify encroachments.
Mr. Biswas told the meeting that the Karnataka High Court had considered the river beds and river banks as public property and had asked the government to remove encroachments from rivers. “`However, if the encroachers are poor people, then the government can give them some relief,’’ he said.
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