Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s overnight stay at Karegudda village in Manvi taluk on Wednesday as part of his Grama Vaastavya programme has raised fresh hopes among farmers in the tail-end of Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal (TLBC) who face a perennial water crisis.
Illegal extension of irrigation to around 1.5 lakh acres in the upper reaches of the canal, particularly in Koppal district, is a major cause for the water crisis in the lower reaches.
The farmers pointed out that so far all the efforts in preventing growers from drawing excess water from the canal have gone in vain. As a result, over 70,000 acres of legally designated land in Manvi, Raichur, and Sindhanur taluks continue to be deprived of their legitimate share of Tungabhadra waters.
Farmers in the tail-end of the TLBC, including those from Karegudda, are unable to grow two crops in a year. Most of them have even stopped paddy cultivation and taken to growing crops such as cotton and chilli that require less water. They have been demanding that the government build another canal parallel to the TLBC to directly connect the tail-end fields without any outlets in the upper reaches. This is the demand that Mr. Kumaraswamy promised to address.
Balancing reservoir
He also said he would address the issue of silt accumulation in the Tungabhadra reservoir for over 60 years — about 33 tmcft — by constructing a balancing reservoir at Navali that could hold around 30 tmcft of water. The Chief Minister assured the farmers that he would take up this work. “The detailed project report is being prepared. Preliminary discussion has been done by the Tungabhadra Board. We will discuss with the governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and take a final call. Be assured that the project will be completed before the end of my term,” he said addressing the people at Karegudda village.
Shashidhar Haravi, a tail-end farmer from Haravi village, said, “If these projects are implemented as assured, Mr. Kumaraswamy would help millions of farmers in Raichur and Manvi taluks. The project would prevent migration to a great extent. We will call the parallel canal ‘Kumaranna canal’ just as Ganekal balancing reservoir is called as ‘Bangarappa kere’ as it was built during S. Bangappa’s tenure as Chief Minister.”
Jaladhare in ‘doab’ area
Finding a permanent solution to drinking water crisis in Raichur district — a doab located between the Krishna and the Tungabhadra rivers — under Jaladhare scheme is another boost that the district got with the Chief Minister’s village stay. Mr. Kumaraswamy assured the people that his government had chosen Raichur and Vijayapur to implement the Jaladhare scheme to provide drinking water to every village. “I have already made ₹1,500 crore budgetary allocation to implement the scheme here on a pilot basis,” he said.
Old age pension to increase
Reiterating his government’s commitment to strengthen social security programmes, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has announced that he will raise the old age pension from ₹1,000 to ₹2,000 and the pension for physically challenged persons from ₹1,400 to ₹2,500 from next year. He was addressing a public meeting organised as part of his Janata Darshan and Grama Vaastavya programmes on Wednesday.
