With the Cabinet approving the ₹1,032-crore Jaladhare project for providing drinking water to 388 villages in Dharwad district, steps will be taken to implement the project at the earliest, Minister for Large and Medium Industries Jagadish Shettar has said.
Speaking to presspersons in Hubballi on Saturday, Mr. Shettar said that steps will also be taken to implement the ₹53-crore drinking water project for Annigeri town, which had also been approved by the Cabinet.
Mr. Shettar said that of the ₹1,032-crore project, the Union government will provide a grant of ₹430.48 crore under the Jal Jeevan Mission, while the State government will give ₹602 crore. The remaining ₹423 crore will be raised as loan from NABARD, he said.
He said that the Cabinet had approved ₹9,000 crore projects for seven districts. RDPR Minister K.S. Eshwarappa had taken interest in the project while Union Minister Pralhad Joshi had succeeded in getting funds from Centre for the project.
This apart, MLAs Shankar Patil Munenakoppa and Amrut Desai had played a role in preparing a comprehensive project report, he said.
To a query, Mr. Shettar said that water allocation for the project was from the Malaprabha from the Irrigation Department and this apart, water would be drawn to the reservoir from the Kalasa Banduri Project too.
Clarifying that the Centre had written to the State regarding extending containment measures, he said that as the lockdown was in place till June 7, any decision on extending it would be taken by Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa.
He said currently the positivity rate in Dharwad had decreased to 16% and when it came down to 5%, lockdown restrictions would be eased completely.
Mr. Joshi said that ₹3.6 lakh crores had been earmarked for the ‘Har Ghar Har Nal Yojana’. “The objective is to provide drinking water to all houses by 2023. Under the initial stages, laying of pipelines and construction of over head tanks will be taken up. Drawing water from rivers to villages is a challenging job,” he said.
Earlier, Mr. Shettar and Mr. Joshi symbolically handed over various drugs and medical equipments to the district administration.
These were donated by IPS officer of Hubballi origin Vishwanath Sajjanar and his friends.
They also handed over the medical equipment donated by Navadurga Surgical India Private Limited.
