The Karnataka government has proposed a Rs. 45,000-crore project to provide permanent drinking water solution to the State, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj H.K. Patil has said.
Mr. Patil, who announced this in the Legislative Council on Wednesday, said a Rs. 1,030-crore surface water project would be taken up on a pilot basis as part of the larger plan in Gadag district. Sourcing water from rivers and purifying it for consumption was the only long-term solution to drinking water problem in villages, he said.
Defunct borewellsADVERTISEMENT
Mr. Patil said that of the about 3 lakh borewells sunk by the RDPR Department, nearly 50 per cent were defunct and there was an urgent need to recharge them.
Each gram panchayat in Karnataka had been given the target of recharging at least two borewells this year under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), the Minister said. “We hope to recharge all defunct borewells in Karnataka in the next three years,” he added.
Efforts were also being made to revive dried up tanks in villages also under the MNREGA as part of the ‘Namma Ooru, Namma Neeru’ scheme through the Tank Development Authority, Mr. Patil said. Clearing encroachments along ‘raja kaluves’ and developing catchment areas was more important than removing silt from tanks, he said. About 18,000 tanks in Karnataka had dried up and work was on to revive 12,000 of them, the Minister said.
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He was responding to a call attention motion by BJP MLC C.H. Vijay Shankar on the water crisis in Arsikere and Belur in Hassan district and Kadur in Chikmagalur district.