Vijayapura: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was once again emphatic on Friday that his government had no intention of denotifying tanks, dry or otherwise, and claimed that the rumour was being spread by some people, who had a vested interest in showing the Congress in poor light.
“No such proposal ever came up before the cabinet. I am making it clear that our government has no plans to denotify tanks as we are for their protection and not destruction. The canard has been spread by some, who have a vested interest in this,'' he said. Mr Siddaramaiah, who was addressing the valedictory function of the National Water Convention for Drought Free India at Vijayapura, noted that after Rajasthan, Karnataka had the largest tract of agricultural land dependant on rain for cultivation in the country. “So the challenge before us is to use the limited available water to bring more area under irrigation , which is possible by implementing more micro irrigation projects,'' he said.
Pointing that conservation of water was crucial , which had been battling drought for the last seven years, he said it was important for the state to go in for more drip irrigation or irrigation through sprinklers rather than irrigation systems that consumed more water. Acknowledging that only 34 per cent of the agriculture land in the state came under irrigation currently, Siddaramaiah said his government was focusing more on irrigation projects that effectively utilised the available sources of water to cover more of it.
Referring to the Rs 2,500 crore project to fill tanks in Chikkaballapur and Kolar districts with treated sewage from Bengaluru, he explained that the government planned to reuse the 20 tmc ft of sewage generated by the city to help these districts which were short of water.
“All this waste water, which would otherwise have gone into drains, will be treated and diverted to fill up the tanks of both districts to help them overcome their water scarcity,” he added.
