State to modernise irrigation canals in N-K on priority

The Karnataka Government on Wednesday said it will take steps to maintain and modernise all irrigation canals under the Gandorinala, Bhima, Ghataprabha and Malaprabha projects.

Reacting to the Central Water Commission’s (CWC) latest report on the drought situation in Karnataka, the state government said some canals under irrigation projects in Kalaburagi and Belagavi districts were constructed several decades ago and the state government is taking steps to maintain and modernise those canals.

The modernisation of Bennetora project at an investment of Rs 174.15 crore is under progress. The government has already announced the taking up of the Malaprabha canal modernisation works at a cost of Rs 964 crore and work will start soon, said Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Ltd in its statement.

The government will modernise the Ghataprabha project at an expenditure of Rs 573.28 crore in stages. Some works in Bhima projects are stuck due to problem of land acquisition and the state government is trying to resolve it, the statement said.

In the past three years, the state government has taken a number of steps to modernise canals to ensure tail-end farmers also get sufficient water.

The state government’s reaction came to the CWC study report on drought-hit states in the country (2015-16) including Karnataka, in which the Central agency observed that Karnataka poorly executed Centrally funded major and minor irrigation projects in Belagavi and Kalaburagi districts and said lacunae in the existing irrigation projects compounded the already prevalent water crisis.
DH News Service