The Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS) is planning to mobilise farmers to pressure the Department of Water Resources and the district administration in Raichur and Koppal to prevent ‘water theft’ at the upper reaches of the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal (TLBC).
D. Veerana Gowda, KPRS leader, said on Sunday that over 1.5 lakh acres of unauthorised land at the upper reaches of the TLBC in Koppal district was being irrigated by illegally drawing water from the canal and depriving farmers at the lower reaches of their legitimate share. He alleged that officials of the Water Resources Department were allowing it to happen bending to political pressure.
“Because of the excess drawing of water at the upper reaches, there is shortage of water at the lower reaches. Vast tracts of land in Manvi and Raichur taluks that are authorised for irrigation using the TLBC water face shortage every year. As a result, actual irrigated area in these taluks has come down. The sad thing is that despite staging agitations every year, the situation continues unchanged,” he said. Mr. Gowda said that the KPRS would organise a conference of farmers from the lower reaches of the TLBC in Manvi on July 14. “We have brought the issue to the notice of the district administration in Raichur and Koppal and the officials of the Water Resources Department and submitted concrete proposals to address it. But, nothing has happened so far,” he said.
