The Irrigation Consultative Committee (ICC) has decided to release water from Basavasagar Reservoir at Narayanpur in Hunsagi taluk of the district to Narayanpur Left Branch Canal (NLBC) and Narayanpur Right Branch Canal (NRBC) and also from Lal Bahadur Shastri reservoir at Almatti from December 12 to March 30, 2023, enabling farmers to use canal water for rabi crops for 2022-23.
The committee, headed by C.C. Patil, Minister for Public Works, held a meeting in Bengaluru on Wednesday with MPs, MLAs, and senior officers to discuss water availability in the reservoirs . The ICC decided to release water from the reservoirs to NLBC and NRBC. This would help around 5.5 lakh hectares of the areas of the Upper Krishna Project (UKP) in Vijayapur, Kalaburagi, Raichur and Yadgir districts.
Initially, the chairman discussed releasing water on Waara-Bandhi (which means water will be released for a week and thereafter stop immediately for the next week). However, he then decided based on the demands of people’s representatives to release water on a Chalu-Bandh (start and stop) basis (implying that the water will be released for 14 days and thereafter stop immediately for the next 10). Mr. Patil also advised farmers to use water for light consumption crops such as groundnuts, jowar and wheat instead of the heavy water consumption crops like paddy, sugar cane and banana.
Narasihma Nayak, MLA of Shorapur, appealed to farmers to not to waste water. “Farmers should prepare the land for the rabi season and sow the crop between November 24 to December 11 and use the water properly without wastage,” he added.
Raja Amareshwar Naik, MP, Minister Murugesh Nirani, Shivanagowda Nayak and other senior officers were present.
