The Hindu : Karnataka News : Dharam Singh to meet leaders today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 09, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

Dharam Singh to meet leaders today

By Suresh Bhat

BIJAPUR, FEB. 8. The Bijapur MP, Basanagouda R. Patil Yatnal, MLAs and members of the Bijapur Zilla Samagra Neeravari Horata Samiti are scheduled to participate in the meeting convened by the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, in Bangalore on Wednesday.

When the samiti, headed by Mr. Yatnal, spearheaded the agitation demanding restoration of original allocation of Krishna waters to irrigation projects in the district, the Government promised to sort out the issue across the table.

Though some other issues are also likely to come up for discussion, the leaders from the district, as per the consensus reached at an all-party meeting held on Sunday last, will concentrate on the water allocation to Mulwad, Chimmalagi and Herkal lift irrigation projects under the Scheme "B" of the Bachawat Tribunal Award, which (Scheme B) deals with the surplus water in Krishna.

Original plan

According to the original master plan prepared for the Scheme B of Bachawat Tribunal, the Mulwad, the Chimmalagi and the Herkal lift irrigation projects have an allocation of 56.1 tmcft, 25.13 tmcft and 10.3 tmcft of water respectively. However, in the revised master plan, their allocation has been reduced to 36.514 tmcft, 20.789 tmcft and 3.664 tmcft respectively. The agitators' demand is that the original allocation of these projects be restored. While pronouncing its award in 1976, the Bachawat Tribunal allocated 734 tmcft water in the Krishna to Karnataka. In its quota, the State Government allotted 173 tmcft to the Upper Krishna Project under which it was planned to irrigate 15.37 lakh acres of land. Of this, a 7,83,660 acres (51 per cent of total planned area) is in Gulburga district and 2,57,565 acres (16.75 per cent) in Raichur district. While an area of 4,41,530 acres (28.72 per cent) comes in Bijapur district and 54,260 acres (3.53 per cent) is planned in Bagalkot district.

As per the earlier gauging of surplus water, it was calculated that Karnataka would get 183 tmcft of water, and out of this the State Government planned (in its original master plan) to allocate 129 tmcft to UKP that included seven projects including Mulwad, Chimmalagi and Herkal lift irrigation schemes.

The latest gauging exercise undertaken by the Central Water Commission showed that the quantum of surplus water available in the Krishna is 557.5 tmcft, and State is to get 278.7 tmcft. However, the State Government instead of increasing the water allocation to UKP proportionately, reduced its quantum to 117 tmcft.

On January 24, 2002, the then Managing Director of Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam Limited, the nodal agency commissioning the UKP, highlighted this fact in his letter to the Department of Water Resources, and objected to the reduction of water to these three lift irrigation projects.

However, the moot question is whether the State Government can again revise the already revised master plan and restore the original allocation to these three projects.

In the revised plan, the State Government has distributed all the 278.7 tmcft to various projects coming in different sub-basins of the Krishna such as Tungabhadra, Ghataprabha, Malaprabha and Bheema. In the modification exercise, the district such as Gulburga, Koppal and Gadag are benefited.

Agreeing to the demand of Bijapur agitators means cut in the allocation of water to projects of other districts, and it may well attract the wrath of people of that area.

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