Minister for Minor Irrigation C.S. Puttaraju on Tuesday said that all steps would be taken to rejuvenate lakes across the State.
Replying to concerns expressed by members on encroachment of lakes, Mr. Puttaraju said 29,623 lakes across the State come under the Minor Irrigation Department and the government was committed to protecting them and clearing encroachments.
In February, the State government handed over even lakes in Bengaluru, some of which are in deplorable condition, to the Minor Irrigation Department and repealed the Karnataka Lake Conservation and Development Authority Act, two years after the Siddaramaiah government had brought it into existence.
Mr. Puttaraju said there was a lack of manpower to hold survey of the existing lakes, but the department would ensure proper rejuvenation of lakes.
Meanwhile, JD(S) member Sharanappa Mattur embarrassed the coalition government by alleging that there was rampant corruption in the schemes envisaged to protect lakes and members of all parties were party to it. He cited a case pertaining to alleged appropriation of ₹38 crore in the rejuvenation of lakes in Koppal and Raichur districts.
The Minister said the department had started conducting survey of encroachment of lakes and 5,791.06 hectares had been found to be encroached. Encroachment of 1,058 lakes have been cleared so far. Attributing the delay in clearing encroachments to the shortage of surveyors, he said the department was planning to draft services of surveyors from the Revenue Department and private agencies.
Group D posts
Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council Kota Srinivas Poojari urged the government to withdraw its proposal to take up direct recruitment to fill Group D posts in government hostels and residential schools.
Referring to the dharna being held by contract workers in government hostels and residential schools, he said the previous Congress government had withheld such a proposal. He urged the government to accord preference to existing contract workers, as appointing one permanent worker would result in one contract worker losing his or her job.
Cutting across party lines, members urged the government to increase the compensation being given to people affected by the recent rains in Dakshina Kannada district and sought all possible steps to bring back the pilgrims from Karnataka stranded in Nepal.