The Hindu : Karnataka News : Farmers forcibly release water from Narayanpur dam

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 19, 2011
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka

Farmers forcibly release water from Narayanpur dam

Staff Correspondent

Yadgir: Tension prevailed at the Narayanpur dam site on Monday when some farmers and Janata Dal (S) activists stormed the area and forcibly released water to the left bank canal.

The farmers also staged a dharna outside the Chief Engineer's office demanding release of 5,000 cusecs of water to the fields. They claimed that if the water was not released, standing paddy crop in over five lakh acres in Gulbarga, Raichur, Yadgir and Bijapur districts would be destroyed.

Official decision

However, they were told that senior Irrigation Department officials and the irrigation consultative committee had decided to stop the water flow on April 15.

The protesters refused to disperse and forced the staff at the dam site to open the gates for nearly one hour. The staff later closed the gates after assuring the farmers that water would be released later.

Shankranna Vanikyal, Nandkumar Malipatil and others led the protest.

Meanwhile, Raju Gowda, Surpur MLA, met Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai in Hubli on Monday and requested him that water be released till the last week of April.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka