In Shikaripur Assembly segment, the home turf of B.S. Yeddyurappa, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party State unit, the implementation of irrigation projects to provide water in drought-affected areas will be the major poll plank for BJP, Congress and JD(S) in the Assembly election.
Farmers had called for a Shiralakoppa bandh on January 30, 2017, demanding irrigation facilities for Udugani and Talagunda hoblis here in Shikaripur taluk that were affected by consecutive droughts.
Following this, Mr. Yeddyurappa, who is also Shivamogga MP, had submitted a memorandum to Uma Bharti, then Union Minister for Water Resources, requesting her to take necessary measures to provide facilities. Acting on the direction of the Union government, a delegation of engineers from the Central Water Commission had conducted a spot inspection on implementation of the Varada Lift Irrigation Projectthat envisages lifting water from the Varada near Honkana to fill 150 tanks in Shikaripur; Tungabhadra Lift Irrigation Project under which water will be lifted from the Tungabhadra near Puradakere to fill 150 tanks in Hosur hobli, and on construction of pick-up dam across Kalvaddu rivulet. In the BJP campaign meets, B.Y. Raghavendra, Shikaripur MLA, alleged that after the inspection and completion of preliminary survey, the Union government had asked the State government to submit a detailed project report on these works but no action was taken in this regard so far. BJP leaders are also saying that the Congress government has not paid heed to the request from Mr. Raghavendra to earmark funds in the Budget of 2018-19 for these projects.
The JD(S) had also taken out a 90 km padayatra from Kubatur village to Shivamogga in November 2017 demanding irrigation facilities. It had attracted a huge crowd in Shikaripur taluk. H.T. Baligar, retired bureaucrat and JD(S) candidate from Shikaripur segment, said that since 1983, BJP leaders have won from Shikaripur segment seven times but they failed to provide permanent irrigation to drought-affected areas. Mr. Baligar said while seeking votes, he would highlight the negligence of BJP leaders towards implementation of irrigation projects when they were in power. Congress leaders in Shikaripur are also planning to raise the same issue during campaigning.
