GULBARGA: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president M. Mallikarjun Kharge, who held the Water Resources portfolio in the previous Dharam Singh Government, on Tuesday accused Water Resources Minister K.S. Eashwarappa of spreading falsehood on the allocation for irrigation projects in the 2006-07 budget and about the efforts made by previous governments to speed up irrigation projects in the State.

Mr. Kharge told presspersons here that the budgetary allocation for the irrigation had been drastically reduced from 33 per cent of the plan allocation in 2001-02 and 2003-04 to mere 26 per cent in 2006-07.

He said the Congress governments had made higher allocation for irrigation projects and said the budgetary allocation made for the current year by the Janata Dal (Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition was lower than the allocation made last year. While 29 per cent of allocation was made in the budget for irrigation last year, the allocation this year was only 26 per cent.

Mr. Kharge said with the meagre allocation for the irrigation this year in the budget, the claim of Mr. Eashwarappa of having speeded up the completion of the irrigation projects would remain a dream. Apart from the reduced allocation to the irrigation projects, the Government had not taken into account the steep escalation in the cost of cement and steel in the past few months.

Accusing the Water Resources Minister of indulging in jugglery of figures, Mr. Kharge said that although the allocation of Rs. 4,100 crore for irrigation for this year was more than Rs. 3,980 crore made in the previous budget, the present Government was conveniently forgetting the steep increase in the plan allocation of the State which had gone up from more than Rs. 13,360 crore in 2005-06 to more than Rs. 16,800 crore.

The allocation made for the irrigation sector of the plan size of the State was less compared with previous years.

Mr. Kharge said during the 20-month rule of the Congress-led coalition government when he was handling the Water Resources Ministry, more stress was given for completion of the long-pending projects such as the Upper Tunga, Markandeya, Lower Mullamari, Mulawad Lift Irrigation project, Bennethora, Harinala, Karanja, and Gandorinala projects in the State. The result of the efforts of the previous government was showing now and all these projects were ready for inauguration.

Projects such as Mulawad Lift Irrigation had been inaugurated and Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy would be inaugurating Bennethora and Gandorinala projects during his visit to Gulbarga district on April 25 and 26.

Mr. Kharge said besides giving importance to major and medium irrigation projects, the previous Government had attached equal importance to take up the construction of small barrages across the rivers, including the Bhima, Kagina, and Manjra to utilise the share available to the State in these rivers. Recently, NABARD had approved construction of more barrages across the Kagina and tenders for the construction of four barrages across the Manjra was in the approval stage now.

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