M.B. Patil, Minister for Water Resources, has promised to make sincere efforts to get water released from the Bhadra project to help save standing cotton and chilli crops in Ballari taluk.
Responding to questions from presspersons here on Friday, Mr. Patil said that due to the failure of rain, the dams in the State, including the Tungabhadra dam, did not get filled causing shortage of water for irrigation.
“Several farmers, who had cultivated chilli and cotton, met me and narrated their plight, apprehending huge loss of crop for want of water. They also urged me to initiate steps to get water released from the Bhadra reservoir so that their crops could be saved. I will make sincere efforts,” he said.
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According to him, apart from failure of rain, lack of water discipline had aggravated the situation this year.
“Without going into the details of what has happened, I will make sincere efforts to get around two tmcft or three tmcft of water released from the Bhadra project to help save the standing chilli and cotton crops which, in turn, would help prevent farmers undergoing loss,” he said.