Chief Minister Siddaramaiah directed the authorities of Zilla Panchayat and Department of Water Resources to take measures to clear large-scale encroachments on the Markandeya river, a tributary of the Ghataprabha river, and complete the ongoing de-silting works expeditiously.
The Chief Minister, who is on a day’s visit to take stock of the measures taken to provide succour to the villagers reeling under drought, inspected the ongoing de-silting works at one of the nearly 20 reaches of the river near Ambewadi under Belagavi Rural assembly constituency of Belagavi taluk on Monday morning.
Interacting with the villagers, he said ensuring drinking water was the government’s priority. Measures to de-silt the river had been already taken and authorities had been instructed to clear the encroachments.
He also assured to that the trees would be planted on both sides of the river to provide fencing to avoid encroachments in future.
A Zilla Panchayat official told The Hindu that de-silting at 20 reaches of the 43-km long river stretch, from Karnataka-Maharashtra boundary up to Markandeya dam had been taken up under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The Ambewadi Gram Panchayat has taken up de-silting of the river near Ambewadi at the cost of Rs.5 lakh.
Thereafter, Mr.Siddaramaiah visited a fodder bank at Karimutt in Hargapur village under Yamkanmardi assembly constituency.
