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What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
MYSORE/MANDYA: As the water crisis in Karnataka continues unabated with the Cauvery basin witnessing a major shortage due to deficiency in the south-west monsoon and the state reeling through a drought-like situation which it never had experienced in the past 123 years, economic and farmers union members blame the state government over the mismanagement and inefficiency in failing to report the ground situation regarding the water-levels to the monitoring authority.
As per experts, the failure in addressing the ground situation and apprising the availability of water in the Cauvery basin with the monitoring authority is one of the main reasons that led to the appellate body passing an interim order directing Karnataka to release 5000 cusecs of water.
As per the latest data, 193 out of the 220 taluks have been declared ‘drought affected’.
Professor KS Basavaraju, who is heading the Karnataka chapter of ‘Cauvery family’, an umbrella organization representing farmers and also the founder member of ‘Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha’ has criticized the state government and its inefficiency in apprising the weekly status of the outflow and inflow of water to and from the dams as one of the main reasons for the current crisis.
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“The irrigation department which is under the state government river reg authority is responsible for monitoring the inflow and outflow and report it to monitoring authority on a weekly basis. But unfortunately, the Karnataka officials did not present the details and also didn’t attend the weekly meetings in person. However, the Tamil Nadu officials managed to provide their feedback and apprise the situation on the ground. The monitoring authority had finally passed the orders taking into the account the feedbacks provided by the Tamil Nadu counterparts”, said Professor KS Basavaraju to the ‘Newindian’.
As per the 2018 orders, Karnataka has to provide 172.25 TMC water to Tamil Nadu on a yearly basis. However, in the current year 132 TMC is already being released in the first four months and wherein 32 TMC is being allotted in the month of July.
Owing to a 65 percent deficiency in south-west monsoon leading to unavailability of water for irrigation purposes has affected crops such as sugarcane, coffee and Raggi in districts such as Mysore, Mandya, Kodagu, Hassan and Chamarajanagar. The CWMA direction to Karnataka directing to allot water to the neighboring state has thus angered the farming community who feels that the decision will further aggravate their situation and hence lead to further farm distress.
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“The state government should refrain from releasing water to Tamil Nadu at this juncture. The Deputy Chief minister DK Shivakumar has broken his promise where he said he will not release water. The farmers are already under distress. 255 farmers have committed suicide in the state in the past 6 months and with drought continuing in many taluks, situation looks grim. We demand urgent government intervention”, said state Sugarcane growers’ association president Kurbur Shanthakumar.
Meanwhile, more farmer groups are planning to hold protests across the state over the current crisis faced in the agriculture sector
