Budget 2023-24: Navale Balancing Reservoir announced again with no specific allocations

KALABURAGI

The construction of a balancing reservoir over the Tungabhadra at Navale in Koppal taluk, the project which was announced in the previous budgets also, was once again announced on Friday by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in the budget meant for 2023-24. However, the announcement did not carry any concrete fund allocations with it, indicating the possibility of keeping the project on paper only, just as the previous announcement did.

The construction of the balancing reservoir has been a long-pending demand of farmers in Raichur and Koppal districts whose fields are irrigated by Tungabhadara waters through Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal.

Since the storage capacity of Tungabhadra Reservoir in Hosapete has come down by 32 tmcft owing to the silt accumulated at the reservoir bed for the last 70 years, the farmers have been demanding to either dredge the reservoir or build another one to compensate for the loss of water owing to the silt. The government preferred to build a balancing reservoir to the river at Navale in the Koppal district as the dredging of the Tungabhadra Reservoir was almost ruled out due to the technical complexities and the same was announced in the previous budgets. However, the project remained as an announcement on the paper.

“The project report to construct the balancing reservoir near Navale of Koppal district to overcome the deficit in storage capacity in the Tunga Bhadra reservoir has been prepared. This project being an inter-state one, and a meeting has been already held with the Andhra Pradesh Government. In this regard, the action will be taken to implement the project after holding a meeting with the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,” the Chief Minister said. in the budget speech on Friday but made no allocation of funds for the project.

“Successive governments have been cheating farmers in Raichur and Koppal districts. They have been assuring the construction of a balancing reservoir at Navale in the Koppal district for the last ten years. The project was announced in the previous two budgets. Mr. Bommai has announced it once again. The announcement without the allocation of funds doesn’t have any meaning other than cheating farmers,” Chamarasa Malipatil, honorary president of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and State president of Sarovdaya Karnataka, told The Hindu.

Mr. Malipatil, from Raichur district, also blamed the people’s representatives, cutting across party affiliations, from Koppal and Raichur district for their inability to force the Chief Minister to allocate funds and get the project implemented.