A delegation of farmers leaders from Jatt taluk in Maharashtra met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakkumar in Athani on Wednesday, urging them to release some water from irrigation projects in the State to fields in the border villages of Maharashtra.
A memorandum submitted by them said that they are willing to join Karnataka, if they are assured of irrigation. “Please give us water or include us in Karnataka so that we come under the command area of your irrigation schemes,” the memorandum said.
“As many as 40 villages in Jatt taluk are suffering from severe water scarcity. Our repeated pleas to Maharashtra government to find a permanent solution to the crisis have been ignored. Though the entire taluk has been drought-hit, the Maharashtra government has failed to declare it as drought-hit. It has only included a few villages, leaving out several of them,” they said.
“Only around 60 tankers are being used to supply drinking water to villages in Jatt taluk. Assurances made by successive governments to end the water scarcity in Jatt taluk by building an exclusive irrigation project, have not been fulfilled,” they said.
“We, therefore, urge the Karnataka government to share some water from projects like Tubachi Babaleshwar or Kottalagi scheme with farmers in Jatt taluk. If the Karnataka government cannot give us water as we are in Maharashtra, we urge it to include the 40 villages in Karnataka so that we get assured irrigation,” they said.
The former Minister Vishwajit Kadam, Jatt MLA Vikram Sawant, local leaders Babu Mali, Ramesh Patil, M. Siragonda, Nilesh Bamane, Sujay Shinde and others were present.
The delegation also included the sarpanch and members of some gram panchayats.
