Minister for Water Resources Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday said that the tenders will be floated for implementation of Yetthinhole projects to provide drinking water to parched districts of Tumkur, Kolar and Chikkaballapur by the end of this month.
In his reply to the question by BJP member Y A Narayanaswamy in Legislative Council during the question hour, he said the project to divert Yetthinhole river from Sakleshpur taluk will be taken up at a cost of Rs 8,323.50 crore and the tenders for the work will be called by the end of August. In his reply, he also said that 24 TMC water will be diverted and a reservoir to store ten TMC of water will be constructed in Tumkur district from where the water will be lifted to Chikkballapur and Kolar too.
The project once started will be completed within a duration of 30 months. When members questioned about the river linking programme in the state as well as implementation of Paramashivaiah report, the Minister said that a survey of Western Ghats will be taken up to look into the feasibility.
Lift irrigation
Basavaraj Bommai has said that 1.5 lakh acres of land will soon be irrigated through Gutti Basavanna Lift Irrigation (GBLI) scheme.
Replying to a query by BJP member Arun Shahapur during the question hour in the Legislative council, the Minister assured that the GBLI, project to irrigate lands upto a distance of 147 kms will be completed at the earliest. The project conceived in late nineties has been half complete upto 95 kms and the work on remaining 50 kms project is going in a snail pace and has witnessed several protests by the farmers.
The Minister when pointed out by the member that the Sindagi taluk farmers being at the tail end of the canal are deprived of water as the farmers in the upstreams are laying obstruction walls, he said that the walls have been removed and said that only those farmers who cultivate sugarcanes are constructing walls. He also said that a programme is being initiated to grow sugarcane through micro irrigation.