Farmers demand curb on illegal lifting of water

DAVANAGERE: The Bharatiya Raitha Okkoota (Indian Farmers Federation), Bhadra branch, Davanagere, has urged CM B S Yeddyurappa to deploy rapid action force (RAF) to combat illegal pumping of water from Tungabhadra river.
The office bearers of the federation, headed by Prof C Narasimhappa, H R Lingaraj, Shyanabhog Nagaraj Rao alleged that thousands of illegal motor pumpsets had been fixed upstream of TB river, withdrawing over 400 cusecs of water from Davanagere, Channagiri, Harihar and other areas of TB river in the district.
Some of the owners of these illegal pumpsets have been withdrawing river water to water their fields located over 5 kms, they said. This has led to less or no water flow to the fields of the farmers downstream. Thus, their dependable crops have been dying for years, they alleged. Besides, a huge revenue loss has also been incurred to the KPTCL, as they are pumping water using illegal pump connections, they said.
They appealed to the CM to curb this illegal pumping of river water menace in the interest of the farmers downstream and also revenue collection to the KPTCL. Further, they appealed the CM to post mobile police squads on par with `Hoysala' to supervise the banks of TB river to check these illegal withdrawal of river water. In this regard, a memorandum was submitted to the CM in Davanagere on Wednesday.