Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar assured agitating farmers of Nargund-Navalgund on Saturday that the inter-state water dispute between Karnataka and Goa would be resolved through mutual discussion, despite the tribunal set up by the Centre to look into it . The state had already written to Goa Chief Minister, Manohar Parikkar and more consultations would be held with him to pave the way for early implementation of the Kalasa Banduri Nala project, he said.
Mr Shettar, who was confronted by thousands of angry farmers when he arrived in Nargund-Navalgund to pay homage to the three farmers killed in police firing during a protest against the collection of betterment fee on July 21, 1980, squarely blamed lack of cooperation from the Centre for the delay in implementing the project to divert 7.5 tmc of water from the Mahadayi river to the Malaprabha river and provide water to various parts of undivided Dharwad district. “We first started on the project during the JD(S)-BJP coalition government and even earmarked Rs 100 crore for it. There is no dearth of funds to complete it,” he added.
The Chief Minister, who was accompanied by water resources minister, Basavaraj Bommai, laid the foundation stones for a few lift irrigation projects and promised to complete those already in the pipeline, but failed to convince the farmers. Various outfits led by the Kalasa-Banduri Horata Samithi held a procession in Nargund, holding placards and lashing out at both the Congress and the BJP for failing to resolve the dispute over the Kalasa Banduri project.
“Both the UPA government at the Centre and the BJP government in the state are only trying to gain political mileage from the project despite the farmers’ agitation of over two decades,” charged samithi president, Vijay Kulkarni.