The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : MLAs stage dharna over Kabini project

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Thursday, Jul 19, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

MLAs stage dharna over Kabini project

Staff Reporter

They wanted Eshwarappa to announce the date of commencing work

Bangalore: Dhruvanarayana (Congress) and Vatal Nagaraj of Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha on Wednesday staged a dharna in the Legislative Assembly seeking intervention of Speaker Krishna on taking up of work on Kabini second stage, which would irrigate 55,000 acres in Chamarajanagar district and other areas.

Raising the issue during Question Hour, the members demanded that Water Resources Minister K.S. Eshwarappa announce the date of commencing the project. But, the Minister refused to oblige.

Mr. Dhruvanarayana continued to make the demand even as Mr. Krishna moved over to the next question. Upset by this, the members staged a dharna.

They said the project required only nine tmcft of water out of the 270 tmcft awarded by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.

When the Government was for taking up the project, what prevented the Minister from announcing the date, they asked.

M. Mallikarjun Kharge supported them.

Mr. Eshwarappa said the State Government had questioned the award before the Supreme Court.

However, the Government could not ignore it altogether. The Minister agreed to a suggestion by the Speaker to convene a meeting of legislators of the area that would benefit from the project and senior officials for a discussion. The members then withdrew the dharna.

Lift irrigation

The Minister told Papa Reddy A. that a large lift irrigation scheme in Raichur taluk at a cost of Rs. 227.68 crore was under consideration of the Irrigation Department.

It would utilise four tmcft of water under Scheme B of the Krishna award to irrigate 17,885 hectares.

Tank development

The Minister told Shivashankar Reddy N.H. that 10 tanks each in Gauribidnur, Chickaballapur and Srinivasapura in Kolar district would be developed by the department.

Administrative approval would be given to the proposal after completing the formalities.

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