Students of degree colleges coming under the Varahi Irrigation Project area will boycott classes and go on a strike to support the agitating farmers at Siddapura in Udupi district, on January 8.
The farmers have been on an indefinite relay dharna over the delay in the implementation of the project since January 1.
Addressing presspersons here on Tuesday, Shravan Shetty, student leader, said that nearly 500 students had volunteered to take part. Students from Bhandarkars’ College and B.B. Hegde College in Kundapur, Government First Grade Colleges in Shankarnarayana and Koteshwara, Sharada College in Basrur and National College in Barkur will participate.
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Mr. Shetty said both the Varahi Irrigation Project and the Brahmavar Cooperative Sugar Factory were launched in 1979. The objective of the irrigation project was to provide facilities to farmers in 33 villages in Kundapur taluk and 35 villages in Udupi taluk so that they would grow sugarcane for the sugar factory.
The factory began its operations in 1985 and also shut down amid mounting losses in 2004. But the irrigation project was progressing slowly. After 35 years, only 40 per cent of the work had been done. It was launched at an estimated cost of Rs. 9.43 crore and the cost escalated each year. An amount of Rs. 589 crore had been spent on it. “But not a single drop of water has flown in either its Right Bank or Left Bank Canal,” he said.