Belagavi: The government came under attack in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday over the Upper Krishna Projects with independent MLA, Yashwanthrayagouda Vittalagouda Patil accusing it of dragging its feet on completing them.
Raising the issue during question hour, he urged the government to work faster to vacate the stay given by the Supreme Court on the projects and to appeal to the Centre to issue the necessary notification for increasing the height of the Almatti dam.
Opposition leader, B S Yeddyurappa of the BJP, too claimed that the government was not acting fast enough to complete the Upper Krishna Projects and was paying greater attention to the Cauvery basin. "The government is ready to spend over Rs 1,500 crore to give a facelift to the Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) dam but it is not showing the same commitment to the Krishna projects," he charged.
The government in its reply, however, said it had formed a Cabinet sub-committee on land acquisition for raising the height of the Alamatti dam from 519.60 meters to 524.256 meters. And Water Resources Minister, D K Shivakumar pointed out that it was not spending any money on developing the KRS reservoir as the Disneyland themed park in its grounds was being established under the PPP module.
Meanwhile, replying to question by Mr S A Ramadas, Health and Family Welfare Minister, Shivananda Patil explained the government had already implemented the Karnataka Private Hospitals Regulation Act, 2007, but had constituted a committee of three experts to look into its enforcement now as it had been amended this year.
Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar later ruled that the two questions, one on the Upper Krishna Project and the other on the Private Hospitals Regulation Bill would be dealt with more in detail during the one hour discussions he intended to allow on these issues.
