Ensure supply of fodder, water: RVD

Belagavi: Revenue minister RV Deshpande directed officials to take all measures to ensure fodder and water does not fall short in Ramdurg, Savadatti and Athani, which have been declare as drought hit.
He spoke at a review meeting at the Zilla Panchayat Hall here on Saturday. He told officials to mandatorily visit drought hit areas and listen to public grievances directly.

Raibag MLA Duryodhan Aihole alleged that there was a shortage of fodder and water in his taluk but local officials were hiding the problems by not giving proper ground reports to senior officials. Deshpande then asked the assistant commissioner concerned, the joint director of agriculture department and the deputy director of veterinary department to visit the spot and submit a detailed report.

Meanwhile, Aihole demanded that Raibag taluk be declared as drought affected but Deshpande said the state government has already announced some taluks as drought affected based on the failure of kharif season due to shortage of rainfall. “To consider the yield of the rabbi season, Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to make up his mind first. It’s not in the hands of the state government,” he said.

Meanwhile, Deshpande instructed assistant commissioners of Chikkodi, Belagavi and Bailhongal to submit detailed reports on the distribution of fodder kits after MLAs alleged that the kits were being distributed without informing local MLAs. They also alleged about financial misappropriation in the distribution of the kits.

MLAs Mahantesh Koujalagi, Mahantesh Dodagoudar, Anand Mamani, Shrimant Patil, Anil Benake, Mahadevappa Yadawad, MLC Mahantesh Kavatagimath, ZP president Asha Aihole, chief secretary of revenue department Rajkumar Khatri, regional commissioner P A Meghannavar and DC S B Bommanhalli were present.