The Water Resources Department has written to Additional Chief Electrical Inspector urging him to cut power supply to NSL Sugars at Bhusnoor village in Aland taluk in Kalaburagi for drawing water from Amarja reservoir illegally.
The Water Resource Department had given approval to the factory to draw 4,000 KLPD (51.55 mcft) water from Amarja reservoir for five years (September 17, 2012 to September 16, 2017). Now, though the contract has expired, the plant was drawing water without renewing its contract agreement. Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Limited has urged the factory to renew the agreement from September 17, 2017 to September 16, 2022 for utilising the Amarja water.
A farmer, Jagadish Patil, said that the factory was drawing water from the Amarja irrigation canals and was also buying water from farmers. Besides this, the factory had drilled borewells within its premises without permission, he added. According to Mr. Patil, the plant did not have rainwater harvesting facility, and it was extracting more than 4,000 kilolitres of water per day. A huge amount of water from the Amarja reservoir and groundwater were being extracted without any regulations, he added.
Despite the conditions that the factory should stop drawing water from the reservoir in summer — between February and June, NSL Sugars had overexploited groundwater resources by drawing water even during the restricted period.
On January 13, 2020, Executive Engineer of Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Limited, Kalaburagi, asked the Additional Chief Electrical Inspector, Bengaluru, to cut power supply to the factory until the dues were cleared.
The factory has paid only ₹ 3,29,920 dues so far.