Former Congress minister MB Patil on Friday met Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and sought the finance department's approval to take up an irrigation project in the drought-hit villages of Indi taluk in Vijayapura.
Patil, a former water resources minister, told Yediyurappa that the finance department had put on hold a project to fill up 16 minor irrigation tanks from the Krishna river through the Tidagundi aqueduct. “He has informally agreed to the same,” Patil said in a tweet after meeting Yediyurappa.
According to Patil, the project was approved by the Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam Ltd in October 2020 at an estimated cost of Rs 140 crore. Subsequently, the finance department deferred the project in view of the pandemic-induced financial condition.
“The project will help people, cattle and birds with drinking water in the severe drought-prone region of the Indi taluk,” Patil stated in his letter to Yediyurappa. He also said filling up 16 tanks will also become a source for the multi-village water supply scheme and improve the groundwater level in nearby villages.
Patil reaching out to Yediyurappa is seen as significant. Patil hails from north Karnataka and is considered to be a prominent leader of the Lingayat community, to which Yediyurappa also belongs. It was once rumoured that the BJP was looking to rope in Patil, which he later denied.
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