Patel puts price tag on water, power

He chided those who preached free supply of power and water, while reacting to the allegations of the Opposition against the power tariff hike.

“The Government had spent over Rs 4000 crore on irrigation sector during the last two years. We have achieved the physical targets like laying canal and canal distribution work in Upper Krishna Project. We require about Rs 12,000 crore for the pending irrigation projects to be completed by2000 AD, the deadline set by the Bachawat Award. Where will we bring this much money ?” he asked.

SINGLE FUND RAISING AGENCY: The chief minister stated that last year the government had received Rs 26 crore as water charges from farmers, and a review of the present water rates was needed. “We are not talking of levying the farmers more. We need to discipline them in utilising available water. We find there is a lot of wastage of water due to bad cropping pattern,” he said. He assured that the government was not for overburdening the farmers with more taxes, but would raise the funds through a corporation on the lines of Krishna Jala Bhagya Nigam (KJBN). He said the pending irrigation projects will be brought under a single fund-raising agency.

The new agency will be formed to raise resources for the projects other than Upper Krishna Project. He said there was no need to make hue and cry that the funds raised by KJBN were misutilised. “Power and water are core sectors backbone of the state’seconomy. People demanding free power and water do have a perverse kind of freedom,” he chided.

“We are not offering people false promises. I have on my record that a former chief minister ordered the construction of irrigation canal for Upper Tunga Project, without a dam being constructed to divert the river water into the canal. I do not want to depend on external funding agencies and be under pressure of repayment. It is better to have an agency on the lines of KJBN to raise funds to complete pending projects,” he pointed out.

WATER DISPUTES: The Chief Minister stated that he had appealed to Prime Minister AB Vajpayee not to come under pressure by any political group or party when it comes to sharing riparian rights. He said that in his faxed message to the Members of Parliament from the state, he had put forth the state’s stand on the disputed river water issues.

Airport proposal not withdrawn: Patel

Chief Minister JH Patel on Thursday stated that the Tatas had not withdrawn theirproposal to construct the international airport at Devanahalli in the outskirts of Bangalore, but only expressed the difficulties they were facing with the project.

“We want an international airport and Tatas has never said anything about their withdrawing from the proposed project. We have to evolve new strategy to implement the project,” he added.

While replying on a question about the allegations on the purchase of a helicopter for State Government, Patel stated that the purchase of the helicopter was done after going through all formalities required. “Where is the question of a global tender? A technical committee has approved the offers from the companies that had sent the quotation,” he said.