Series of check dams planned across streams in Vijayapura district: Karnataka Minister

The government of Karnataka will construct a series of check dams across various streams in Vijayapura district to ensure year-round availability of water, and for recharging groundwater levels.

“In the first phase, work on 10 check dams will be taken up. Of them, work on six will start soon. Tenders have been floated,’’ Minister M. B. Patil said in Karjol in Vijayapura district on March 3. “A total of 156 streams, big and small, will be selected for the purpose,’’ he said at the launch of several development projects.

“The plan is to build a check dam at every kilometre of streams, and to remove silt from the streams. Work on six packages in Babaleshwar Assembly constituency will start as a pilot project,” he said.

He said the Doni river will be dredged and cleaned on the lines of the Bennehalla stream. “A proposal for dredging the Doni river at a cost of around ₹200 crore will be prepared and sent to the State Government. It will help increase its irrigation potential,” the Minister said.

Mr. Patil said he had taken up irrigation projects in northern Karnataka, especially in Vijayapura district when he was the irrigation minister in the first Siddaramaiah ministry (2013-18). “Now, we are trying to focus on educational development,” he said. He claimed that the Babaleshwar constituency had received the highest grant compared to other Assembly seats in Karnataka. He urged farmers not to sell their land under duress, as most of the district would receive irrigation facilities in a few years.

He promised a government PUC college in Karjol village.

He inaugurated a new gram panchayat building, NRLM educational building, a godown and water storage facility constructed under the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA scheme, and the 15th Financial Plan in Karjol village of Babaleshwar taluk.

He distributed title deeds to 312 families of Tonashyal village who were displaced after a flood in the Doni river.