Minister in charge of Dakshina Kannada Dinesh Gundu Rao on Saturday asked Executive Officers of taluk panchayats, Chief Officers of urban local bodies, and the Commissioner of the Mangaluru City Corporation to be prepared with action plans to address drinking water problems in the coming months.
Speaking at a meeting in the office of the Deputy Commissioner, the Minister said that local bodies should ensure that no one is deprived of drinking water in the summer.
Vijay Shetty, Assistant Executive Engineer, Department of Minor Irrigation, told the meeting that presently the Adyar vented dam, built across the Netravathi on the downstream of the Thumbe vented dam, had water storage upto 2m high (0.3 tmcft). If the storage is to be increased by another 2m, to make it 4m high, 33 hectares of land will have to be purchased as the land will get submerged.
It required ₹100 crore to pay compensation to land losers. A proposal on the same has been submitted to the government.
While reviewing the projects of the Department of Fisheries and Ports, an official from the Karnataka Maritime Board told the meeting that the government’s approval to dredge the navigation channel from the old port to estuary, at an estimated cost of ₹27 crore under the Sagar Mala programme, is expected in a week. The channel will be dredged upto a depth of 7m.
A Fisheries Department official said that dredging works are under progress at the old port at the anchoring area of fishing boats at a cost of ₹3.94 crore.
The Minister said that in addition other development works such as reconstruction of the jetty, installing CCTV cameras and others will be taken up at the old port or fisheries harbour at an estimated cost of ₹37 crore.
Manjunath Bhandary, MLC, was also present at the meeting.
