Citing the prevailing water crisis in parts of Kalaburagi district, Afzalpur MLA M.Y. Patil has said that legislators from the district will soon meet Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and urge him to write a letter to Inter-State Water Dispute Tribunal (ISWDT) demanding that the Maharashtra government release water from the Ujjani Reservoir into the Bhima river course.
Addressing a press conference in Kalaburagi on Thursday, Mr. Patil expressed displeasure over the disinterest of public representatives in resolving the water disputes pending for decades.
“The successive governments have failed to fight for our share of water from Ujjani Reservoir to be released into the Bhima river course,” he said.
As per the Bachawat committee report on inter-State sharing of water between Karnataka and Maharashtra, Maharashtra has to release 15 tmcft of water to Karnataka, he said.
Mr. Patil said that a major problem in the district is that people have to depend on the Bhima river waters for irrigation as well as drinking. Farmers in many villages in Afzalpur taluk are facing water scarcity. Farming activities in villages have been severely hit owing to scanty rainfall and dried-up barrages built across the Bhima, he added.
