Pramod Madhwaraj, Minister of State for Fisheries, Youth Empowerment and Sports, on Thursday urged farmers living in the Varahi Irrigation Project area to allow water from the Varahi to be supplied to Udupi city.
He was chairing a review meeting on Varahi Irrigation Project at the Taluk Panchayat Hall, here.
Mr. Madhwaraj pointed out that Udupi was facing a chronic drinking water shortage during summer and the Varahi had perennial water round the year including the summer.
“If the some water is transported from the river through pipelines to the Baje Dam during summer, it will be of great help to the people of Udupi,” he pleaded.
The farmers said that the project had not been fully implemented though 37 years had gone by. Hence, it would be better if priority was given to the implementation of the project before anything else was taken up, they said.
Mr. Madhwaraj then said that even if water were to be drawn to Udupi from the project, it would be done after duly informing them about it.
Some farmers said that while a lot of emphasis was being given to the completion of the work of the Left Bank Canal of the project, the same was not done for the Right Bank Canal.
An officer of the project said that the construction of the Right Bank Canal would be taken up in phases. This was because the land features had changed since the original survey was done about four decades ago. Besides this, nearly 70 acres of forest land needed to be acquired.
Mr. Madhwaraj said that the next review meeting would be held on October 28.
