Final notification soon on acquiring land for Almatti dam: M B Patil

The final notification on acquiring land for raising the height of Almatti dam to 524.256 metres and for implementing the third phase of the Upper Krishna Project (UKP) will be issued shortly, Minister for Water Resources M B Patil said here on Thursday.

Speaking to journalists after attending the Republic Day programme at the B R Ambedkar Stadium, he said the process for acquiring 86,000 acres of land for rehabilitation and reconstruction of villages set to be submerged when the dam’s height was raised was under way. As per the new land acquisition law, land losers will get four times the value of their land or the consent award. It will be up to them to accept either option, he said and added that no farmer would be pressured to accept any particular mode of compensation.

Referring to the nine sub schemes under the third phase of the UKP, Patil said a final order on the works would be issued in a week. The government aims to irrigate 15.50 lakh acres of land and refill all the 184 tanks in Vijayapura district under 10 schemes, he added.