No water even after 18 years! Farmers threaten to demolish Ghataprabha canal

Hubballi: Thousands of farmers in Bagalkot district have threatened to demolish an irrigation canal and regain passion of land which they parted with for construction of Ghataprabha right bank canal with no water in sight after a 18 year-long wait.

These tail-end farmers are irked by the fact that elected representatives failed to ensure flow of water in the canal though a quantum was allocated for them at the time of construction of the canal. The reclaimed land would help them increase production of foodgrains with water saved either through rainwater harvesting or pumped from borewells. The irrigation canal was built in 1999 with the help of a multi-crore rupees' budget for flow of water drawn from from Hidkal dam in Belagavi district when Chief Minister S M Krishna was at the helm. Water was allocated to the canal to irrigate more than 53,000 hectares of farm land in Mudhol, Bagalkot, Badami and Hungund taluks. Irrigation facility has been provided to the entire Belagavi district and the canal from 119 km to 199 km in Bagalkot has not received water ever since it was built. The farmers are deprived of the water though they have provided the land for construction of the canal. Therefore, they are threatening an unique drive to demolish the canal as
several agitations to get water failed to yield any positive result. Farmers' leader Girish Patil of Kagalagomba village told DC, “We have not received a single drop of water since last two decades. Therefore, officials should demolish it or should take measures to release the water to the tail-enders. Otherwise, we will level field by destroying the canal on our own. We can get more yield of foodgrains by undertaking sowing operation by regaining our land.”

Farmers alleged that the authorities failed to ensure equitable distribution of water. They also claimed that lakhes of rupees is being was spent by the officials to clean the irrigation canal though water has not flown in it.

Mr N.D. Pawar, executive engineer, Ghataprabha right bank canal, told DC that with no storage of water in Hidkal dam, it was impossible to supply 85.25 TMD t of water rom the reservoir to three major irrigation canals. Besides, he also admitted the fact that storage level in Hillikal had reduced during the last two years.