Karnataka   

Drought looms over Davangere

DAVANGERE: Officials of the district administration have decided to urge the Government to declare Davangere drought-affected on account of poor rainfall.

Minister for Agriculture and district in-charge S.A. Ravindranath, after obtaining reports from the Agriculture, Horticulture and Revenue departments about the situation here, directed Deputy Commissioner Amaranarayana to make the recommendation to the State Government. He was here to attend the Karnataka Development Programme review meeting on Saturday.

Earlier, Madal Virupakshappa (Chennagiri), Harish (Harihar), Basavaraja Naika (Mayakonda) and Renukacharya (Honnali), MLAs; president of the Davangere Zilla Panchayat Ramappa and vice-president Manjappa spoke about the drought situation.

Mr. Amaranarayana said that although the situation was not alarming, there was a likelihood of many villages facing water scarcity if the situation continued. However, he said, the district administration had enough funds to provide potable water to the people. The Deputy Commissioner also said that the district administration had taken up certain programmes to encourage farmers to grow fodder so that there would not be shortage in the coming days. He said he would send a comprehensive report of the drought situation in the district.

A Cabinet subcommittee, based on the statistics provided, would decide whether to declare the district drought-hit.

Mr. Amaranarayana also said that hydro-fracturing of borewells to supply drinking water to villages from nearby water sources had been carried out.

Many drawbacks in the implementation of the ambitious National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme were also discussed at the meeting. Mr. Virupakshappa said projects under the NREGS had not been carried out in accordance with the guidelines and alleged that many officers had misused funds allocated. He appealed to the Minister to direct them to implement the scheme in a proper way and help the poor.

Mr. Ravindranath told the officials that he would not tolerate callousness on their part. He told them not to make people run around to get jobs done and added that slight deviation from the rules would be allowed if the larger interests of society were served.

Mr. Renukacharya said officials at the taluk level were not available in their offices most of the time, and as they were invariably away attending meetings in Davangere. Mr. Ravindranath directed the Deputy Commissioner, president of the zilla panchayat and the chief executive officer not to hold any meetings on Mondays and Tuesdays so that taluk-level officials were available to the public on these two days.

Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patil, Joint Director of Agriculture Shivamurthappa and Deputy Director of Horticulture Parashivamurthy were present.

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