Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that the government is keen on implementing long- term measures for battling drought.
“We are aware that climate change is leading to long dry spells and erratic monsoons. Karnataka has the largest extent of arid areas after Rajasthan. We are therefore focussing on long-term measures like afforestation, watershed development and rain water harvesting to combat drought,” he said in Bidar on Friday.
He was speaking at a meeting to review drought relief measures at the zilla panchayat office here. Mr. Siddaramaiah said that the government would take up a mega project of planting eight crore saplings across the State. “I have announced such measures in the State Budget. We are also releasing over Rs. 600 crore to farmers to build 56,000 farm ponds in their fields,” the Chief Minister said.
He asked officials to publicise this project. The Chief Minister said that traditional water supply structures like open wells and tanks would be cleaned so that they not only yield water now, but would also impound water in the coming monsoon.
Mallikarjun Khuba, MLA, asked the Mr. Siddaramaiah to commission a study on why north Karnataka and Hyderabad Karnataka were not receiving enough rainfall for the last four years. A scientific study would reveal the causes so that we can think of solutions, he said.
