The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Karnataka admits overdrawal of water

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Saturday, Aug 28, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Karnataka admits overdrawal of water

By B. Chandrashekhar

ANANTAPUR, AUG. 27. Karnataka has admitted to drawing excess water from Tungabhadra right high level canal (HLC).

During an inspection of the canal in Karnataka by four State Ministers and at a review meeting held with board officials at Hospet on Thursday evening, the Revenue Minister of Karnataka, M.P. Prakash, was learnt to have said that farmers of his State were utilising excess quantity.

Four Ministers from the State -- Ponnala Laxmaiah (Major Irrigation), J.C. Diwakar Reddy (Panchayat Raj), N. Raghuveera Reddy (Agriculture) and M. Mareppa (Lift Irrigation) -- accompanied by HLC engineers, engineers of the Tungabhadra Board and elected representatives inspected utilisation of water along the canal.

Starting the inspection from the 14th distributary at 82.7 km of the canal, near Bellary, the team found that the allocated 170 cusecs of water was being released into the distributary.

Stage-managed show?

However, Karnataka's effort to stage-manage the show by forcing some farmers to complain about getting insufficient water was exposed when farmers explained that regular water release to the distributary had been reduced due to the inspection.

At the 33rd distributary it was found that 203 cusecs of water was being released against the allocated 135 cusecs. When Mr. Laxmaiah and Mr. Diwakar Reddy sought to query, Suryanarayana Reddy, an MLA from Bellary district, entered into an argument with the Ministers but agreed that excess water was being drawn by farmers due to high demand.

Later, at the review meeting, Mr. Prakash said it was not possible to ensure more than 1,400 cusecs for Andhra border for next 10 days and added he could not commit anything on the issue without consulting his Chief Minister, Dharam Singh.

Mr. Prakash, however, charged the Andhra Government with neglecting repairs to the canal. Patrolling of the canal by special forces was suggested even as the meeting decided to conduct the board meeting once in every three months at Hospet.

The board Chairman, V.K. Jyoti, the Principal Secretary, Irrigation, S.P. Takkar, the Collectors of Anantapur and Bellary, Y.V. Anuradha and S.S. Jayaram respectively, the Anantapur MP, A. Venkatarami Reddy, the MLAs -- B. Narayana Reddy, S. Sailajanath and P. Keshav (from Anantapur), Y. Saiprasad Reddy and Y. Chennakeshava Reddy (from Kurnool) and Suryanarayana Reddy and Gaviappa (from Bellary) - participated.

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