Led by Chamarasa Malipatil, honorary president of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, and Tipparaju Hawaldar and Shivaraj Patil, MLAs from Raichur Rural and Raichur City, respectively, hundreds of farmers blocked State Highway 20 at Saath Mile Cross for two hours on Tuesday demanding sufficient water for standing crops in the tail-end areas of the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal (TLBC).
They alleged that the officials of Department of Water Resources had joined hands with powerful landowners in the upper reaches of the canal who were illegally using water to irrigate their unauthorised land.
“Standing crops are drying up due to lack of water. Most of the water released from the Tungabhadra reservoir is being used by farmers in Gangavathi and Karatagi areas in Koppal district that are immediately downstream the dam. Since more than 1.5 lakh acres of unauthorised land in these areas are illegally irrigated using the canal water, we are facing water shortage in the tail-end areas,” an agitating farmer said.
Since no vehicle was allowed to pass through the agitation site, traffic movement was disrupted for almost two hours on the inter-State highway that connects neighbouring Telangana and its capital city Hyderabad with many districts in North Karnataka, including Bagalkot and Belagavi. To reduce traffic congestion and avoid any untoward incidents at the agitation site, the district police stopped many vehicles at different places away from the agitation site on the highway.
Called off
It was only after Deputy Commissioner S. Sasikanth Senthil assured the agitating farmers of ensuring that tail-end areas received adequate water within a day or two, the road block was temporarily called off, but the agitation continued off the road.
“We cannot wait for more than two days. Our standing crops are dying due to scarcity of water. If we don’t receive water soon, we will again block the road,” Mr. Chamarasa Malipatil warned. Shivaraj Patil and Tipparaju Hawaldar warned that they would call for a Raichur district bandh if the TLBC tail-end areas did not receive sufficient water within a day.
“The district administration and officials of the Department of Water Resources would have to be held responsible for any law and order problems caused by an intensified agitation,” Mr. Hawaldar said.
He demanded that the authorities ensure a water level of at least 6 ft at the 104th mile point on the TLBC.
Farmer leaders Sharanappa Kalmala, Siddanagowda Nelahala, Mahantesh Patil Attanur, Khasim Naik, D. Veerana Gowda and others were present.
