Hemavathi will not diverted to Ramanagar, promises HDK

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has said that neither H D Deve Gowda nor his family had meted out any injustice to Tumakuru district in connection with supply of Hemavathi water to district.

“Deve Gowda has made honest efforts to flow Hemavathi water to Tumakuru district. But, the BJP has been falsely claiming that injustice has been meted out to district on this issue. I promise that the quantity of Hemavathi water meant for Tumakuru district will not be reduced so as to supply the same to Ramangar,” the chief minister said.

Kumaraswamy was addressing an election rally seeking in Kunigal on Friday, seeking votes for Congress-JD(S) coalition candidate from Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha constituency, D K Suresh.

He said that while Tumakuru district had been allocated 20.31 tmcft of water, the actual flow was 25.47 tmcft. He claimed that in the past 10 months of his administration development projects worth Rs 5,000 crore had been sanctioned for the district.

Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar said that the since the formation of Congress-JD(S) dispensation in the state, the BJP had been making every possible attempt to destabilise the government. He called upon Congress and JD(S) workers to forget differences and unite for defeating the “communal” BJP.

Addressing an election meeting in Gooluru, the chief minister said that the condition of Tumakuru district would have been different if H D Deve Gowda had not launched struggles for construction of Yagachi, Hemavathi and Harangi reservoirs.

Speaking at a similar meeting in Nonavinakere, Kumarswamy said that the engineers had expressed their helplessness saying it was “technically not possible” to construct Baguru-Navile tunnel, which supplies Hemavathi water to Tumakuru. “But, it was Deve Gowda who stood behind them as a result of which Hemavathi water is reaching the district. Since water is not flowing smoothly through the canal, we have taken up modernisation work,” he said.

Kumaraswamy reiterated that the coalition government in the state was committed to waive agricultural loans borrowed from nationalised and cooperative banks.