Karnataka - Tumkur   

Hemavathy water: Congress leaders to take team to Dharam Singh

Staff Correspondent

The Chief Minister will be told of the need to release water into tanks

TUMKUR: Tumkur district Congress leaders have decided to take a delegation of the Hemavathy Left Bank (Tumkur branch) Canal farmers to Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh seeking release of water from the canal into the tanks.

S.P. Muddahanume Gowda, Tumkur District Congress Committee President; G. Parameshwara, Madhugiri MLA; T.B. Jayachandra, former Minister; G.S. Basavaraju, former Tumkur MP; S. Shafi Ahmed and C. Veerabhadraiah, former MLAs for Tumkur and Koratagere, respectively; B.B. Ramaswamy Gowda, Huliyurudurga Block Congress Committee President, and H.S. Hemanth Kumar, TDCC Secretary, told presspersons here on Friday, after a meeting of party workers that the release of Hemavathy water into the Tumkur Branch Canal was delayed by nearly by two months this year despite good rainfall and adequate water in the reservoir. Even after the release of water in early August (it was scheduled to be released in the first week of June), they said, there was no plan on the distribution of water. Mr. Gowda said it was the duty of elected representatives to prevail upon the officials concerned to evolve a policy for distribution of water.

Nobody knows the exact quantity of water being released into the canal and the way the water was being utilised, he said and pointed out that last year around this time he had led a rally of farmers in Kunigal taluk demanding release of water into the Kunigal Doddakere. The Government obliged only after the farmers staged an agitation for several days.

He recalled that he and many farmers had courted arrest in protest against the delay in filling the tank. It was, however, partially filled due to want of sufficient water in the reservoir.

`Situation different now'

The situation was different this year. There was water in the reservoir. It had not been let into even the Mangala Reservoir so far. Mr. Gowda said the Congress leaders of the district will take a delegation of farmers to M. Mallikarjun Kharge, Minister for Water Resources, and meet Mr. Singh along with Mr. Kharge.

Dr. Parameshwara said a convention of party workers would be organised in Tumkur district in November.

Meanwhile, officials of the Hemavathy Canal Zone stirred up a hornet's nest by proposing to shift their zonal office from Gubbi town in the district. Several political leaders, including those of the Congress, have expressed opposition to it.

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