Putting an end to the speculation of farmers on the release of Krishna water to the fields for irrigation, the Irrigation Consultative Committee (ICC) of Krishna basin has announced that water from Almatti dam will be released to the fields between December 1 and March 20.
The announcement was made during the recently held ICC meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister and Chairman of the committee, Govind Karjol, after holding discussions with the officials of Krishna Bhagya Jal Nigam Limited and MLAs of the basin.
The decision for the release was taken based on the availability of water in the dam and the need for water for irrigation purposes.
The officials informed that while a total of 117.915 tmcft water is available in the dam, some 40 tmcft water is required for various purposes, including industries, drinking water and tank filling till end of June 2020. For irrigation, some 78 tmcft water is required which is available in the dam, the officials informed.
Illegal drawing of water
During the meeting, some of the MLAs of tail-end areas raised a complaint that owing to illegal drawing of water by several farmers from the canals, the water does not reach the tail-end farmers of their region.
To this, Mr. Karjol directed the officials to take the help of the police, if required, to prevent illegal drawing of water to ensure that the water reaches till tail-end areas of the basin.
The meeting decided to write letters to the Superintendents of Police of respective districts coming under the basin to provide adequate police personnel to stop illegal drawing of water.
He said that some miscreants have been trying to dig a parallel line to the canal or prepare a big well to store the canal water illegally in their farms. The police and the officials concerned have been asked to keep a watch over such activities.
After the meeting, several farmers’ organisations of Yadgir, Raichur, Kalaburagi and Vijayapura urged the minister to release the water till April because of the dams of the basin have been filled up during monsoon.
