Holding administrative lapses as one of the reasons for non-utilisation of water allocated to Karnataka, senior Supreme Court counsel Mohan Kataraki has said that unless the State government allocated funds to irrigation on priority, the incomplete projects would not be ready even after 50 years resulting in the State losing its right over its rightful share.
Chairing a session on ‘Irrigation: Burning Problems’ on the second day of the Kannada Sahitya Sammelana here on Saturday, Mr. Kataraki said that while the riparian States with which Karnataka had a fight over sharing of river water had completed irrigation projects on priority basis, it was not the case here because of which projects had remained incomplete.
Elaborating on the water disputes, Mr. Kataraki said three decades were lost in the litigation over Cauvery river water and there had been inordinate delay in completing the Upper Krishna Project (UKP) initiated in 1964. The initial project cost of UKP was ₹262 crore, but now ₹53,000 crore was required to complete the remaining work and Karnataka was yet to utilise 300 tmcft of water allocated to it.
He said while projects in the Cauvery basin were meant to irrigate 7.63 lakh hectares of farmland, UKP when completed would irrigate 34 lakh hectares.Elaborating on the solutions to address the issue, Mr. Kataraki said the State government should immediately prioritise irrigation and increase the allocation by 50% for UKP by next year, and subsequently release funds on priority basis to complete the project in 10 years. He also emphasised the need to pool funds for irrigation projects by collecting cess from farmers and setting up an irrigation fund.
