The Hindu : Karnataka News : Relief work in some districts may have to go on: Kharge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 24, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Relief work in some districts may have to go on: Kharge

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, JUNE 23. The Minister for Water Resources and Transport, M. Mallikarjun Kharge, has said that the drought relief work in Gulbarga, Bidar, Kolar, and Tumkur districts will have to be continued if there was no rain for another 20 days.

Speaking to presspersons here today, he said the situation in two north Karnataka districts was bad as there was no rain at all, and only parts of Tumkur district had received rain. The rainfall in Kolar district was moderate.

The farmers would not be able to take up kharif sowing in these districts if the dry spell continued for another 20 days, he said.

The Minister did not seem to be enthusiastic on taking up clouding seeding in these districts. On whether he agreed with the claim by his department that cloud seeding had brought rain in some areas of the State, Mr. Kharge said he had his own opinion about it. He said some areas that received 10 mm of rain recorded 12 mm and in some others it increased from five mm to seven mm. The Minister said he would have appreciated if there was rain in an area where there was no rainfall at all before the cloud seeding operations. Mr. Kharge said it was not right to take it up without considering all aspects. However, he would examine it, he said.

Mr. Kharge said the irrigation consultative committees of the Tungabhadra, K.R.Sagar, Hemavathy, and Kabini reservoirs had been constituted.

They would hold their meetings and decide the date on which water should be released for agricultural operations. The nurseries in and around the Kabini Dam were already getting water.

Questioned about the quantum of water released from the Kabini reservoir to Tamil Nadu, Mr. Kharge said he did not have the exact figures. But, the inflow into the Biligundlu gauging station was 13,617 cusecs and at Mettur, it was 16,694 cusecs. He ruled out release of water to Tamil Nadu from the K.R. Sagar Dam.

The water level of some dams with the inflow in brackets is Alamatti: 1,692 ft (36,999 cusecs); Narayanapur: 1,602 ft; Linganamakkai: 1,1770 ft (6,454); Bhadra: 133 ft (2,752); Ghataprabha: 2,112 ft (5,171); and Malaprabha: 2,042 ft (1,666).

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