'Address dist problems at least now'

MLA K S Puttanaiah urged District in-charge Minister Ambarish to act at least now, as was in the “pink of health”.

Addressing a press conference, here, on Monday, the Melkote MLA said, the minister owing to his ill health had been unable to grievances of the people of the district.

“However, now, he can take steps to solve the problems,” he said, taking a dig at the minister.

Puttanaiah said, he had written a letter to Ambarish, drawing his attention towards various problems faced by the people of the district.

He said, he had urged him to convene a meeting of the Irrigation Consultative Committee to discuss the issues related to modernisation of the canal originating from the River Cauvery and also the KRS dam.

Other problems were related to payment of arrears by sugar factories to farmers.

“Problems with regard to starting crushing in Pandvapura Sahakara Sakkare Kharkane (PSSK) and Mysore Sugar Company (MySugar) and provision of working capital for these two factories have been mentioned in the letter,” he said.

If water supply to canals is stopped, farmers should be informed about it six months in advance. But, officials have not kept the farmers informed, he alleged.

Pointing out that Rs one crore had been released to the VC Farm Research Centre for research of sugarcane crops, he said, the outcome of the research should benefit the farmers.

Officials flayed

Earlier, Puttanaiah visited Hulikere, near Mandya, where works are under progress to restore the roof of the tunnel for Visvesvaraya Canal.

It has to be recalled that the tunnel had caved-in at two places a couple of months back.

When he learnt that it may take at least two months to complete the works, he questioned the officials if they had informed the farmers that water would not be supplied during the said period.

As the officials did not reply appropriately, he took them to task.

“When the MLAs concerned are not informed, how will the farmers know about the issue. The government will be asked to act against negligent officials,” he said.