Don’t repay loans till you get water, farmers told

HUBBALLI: An agitation demanding the implementation of Mahadayi diversion project -- which is linking of Kalasa-Banduri streams with Malaprabha river -- will start again from July 21 by giving a call to farmers of the Malaprabha basin not to repay loans till they get water, announced the Central Committee of a forum of organisations agitating for the project.

Central Committee president Vijay Kulkarni said the agitation will be on the lines of the 1980s protest against the betterment levy imposed on Malaprabha basin farmers that led to the sacrifice of three farmers. This time, the target will not be the police, but the government. It is up to the government not to let the situation get out of control, he cautioned.

Stating that farmers have borrowed money expecting Malaprabha water, he said majority of fields in the region have not received a drop of water. Recalling how CM Basavaraj Bommai participated in the agitation for the Kalasa-Banduri project in the early 2000s, Kulkarni said the same commitment is lacking in him in implementing the project.