Karnataka govt committed to Upper Bhadra project, says Shivakumar

Bengaluru, Sep 3 (PTI) Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Wednesday said that the state government was committed to the Upper Krishna project and a final decision on the implementation would be taken in the next two to three days.

He said at the cabinet meeting on Thursday there will be a discussion on the compensation for the farmers losing their land to the project.

"We have made an appeal to the Union Water Resource Minister C R Patil, who assured us to hold a meeting soon regarding the Upper Bhadra project. We are committed to the project and a final decision will be taken in two to three days," Shivakumar told reporters after a meeting here.

According to him, the government held several rounds of meetings on land acquisition, rehabilitation, redevelopment and compensation.

The previous Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government had fixed a compensation of Rs 24 lakh per acre for irrigated land and Rs 20 lakh per acre for arid land, but the farmers did not agree and have been protesting against it, the Deputy CM said.

According to him, the courts have ruled that farmers need to be given a higher compensation, but it has been decided that higher compensation can’t be given.

"We will take all the farmer leaders, party leaders, MLAs into confidence and proceed on this (compensation). The farmers of Vijayapura have said they are fine with any just compensation. This issue will be discussed in Thursday’s cabinet meeting," Shivakumar said. PTI GMS GMS KH