Directorate mooted for water conservation

Minister for Minor Irrigation Shivaraj Tangadagi said on Tuesday that the government was mulling setting up a groundwater directorate, to protect the State’s depleting water table.

The minister was addressing a press conference after taking part in a Hyderabad-Karnataka liberation day programme in the city. Projects to replenish the water table would be implemented on a pilot basis in five districts: Kolar, Raichur, Bijapur, Koppal and one district in the old Mysore region.

Tangadagi said that during his recent visit to Rajasthan with officials and engineers of his department, he had come across five rivers which had been given a new lease of life under the leadership of water conservationist Rajendra Singh.

The State’s efforts to revive the water table would be based on the Rajasthan model under Singh’s guidance, he said.