Agitations for water greet minister Ramdas

Tour to study drought, to place facts before CMs meeting today

Medical education and district in-charge minister S A Ramdas’ tour to drought hit areas in the district on Friday, turned out an unsavoury experience, with the villagers gheraoing the minister in demand of water.

The minister took the tour to take stock of the situation in view of Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda’s meeting to review drought situation in the district, on Saturday at the office of deputy commissioner at 9.30 am.

Though the minister thought it’s right to board the vehicle, when the villagers at Doddakaulande  in Nanjangud taluk, launched protest, he wasn’t that lucky at Halepura and Gattavadipura when the angry mob majority of them women had a verbal duel with the minister. Holding aloft empty water pots, the protesters who were waiting for the minister’s arrival, literally pounced on him later.

The protesters accused the officers of being in deep slumber, when there is a cry for water in every part of the district. Though five borewells are drilled, only three are in working condition. The remaining two have remained defunct for long. For livestock, borewell is the only source of water as the lake has dried up.

Irregular power supply has augmented the irregular power supply, thus aggravating the crisis. The Kabini drinking water purification unit constructed near Mahadeva Nagar has gone defunct for the past five months.

The villagers at Halepura demanded for water, besides road and bus facilities. No sooner Ramdas began to reply over the same, GP member of Nerale Vasanth intervened only to say he has been tormented as an elected representative.

Due to lack of funds to GP it has become difficult to meet the requirements. The officers are also non-cooperative.

People waiting in serpentine queue under scorching sun to collect water from the tank, dried up water beds and also cattle in wait of feed were the common scenes witnessed during the minister’s tour.

Deputy commissioner P S Vastrad, ZP CEO G Satyavathy, MLC Siddaraju, acting vice-president Shivaram, tahsildar Naveen Joseph and joint director of agriculture, K R Krishnaiah and others were present.

Kabini water

Kabini Water Purification Unit at Mahadeva Nagar in Nanjangud, which was dedicated with much fanfare, is unable to cater to 20 villages in the taluk.

Ramdas who confessed to the situation, attributed the problem to damaged pipeline. The project was commissioned at the cost of Rs 21 crore to supply drinking water round the clock to 57 villages including Doddakaulande.

All was fine until problem was noticed in the form of leakage in pipes, stalling the supply of water to 20 villages.

The problem will be plugged by replacing it with a quality pipe at the cost of Rs two crore. The work will be completed in a span of one month, the minister promised.

On the funds available to take up drought related works, the minister informed that a grant of Rs four crore is available with the district administration. 

An estimated amount of Rs 30 lakh has been earmarked for every constituency to address drinking water related grievances.