60% work on Varahi project completed

THE HINDU - April 13, 2015

Urban Development Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake has said that nearly 60 per cent of the work on the Varahi Irrigation Project in Udupi district had been completed.

He was speaking after inaugurating various development works initiated by the Amasebail Charitable Trust along with the Amasebail Gram Panchayat, Karnataka Bank Ltd., Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project here recently.

Mr. Sorake said that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah would inaugurate the first phase of the Varahi Irrigation Project, which was expected to provide irrigation to about 3,000 hectares of land, on April 20. The Varahi project, for which foundation stone had been laid 35 years ago, progressed at a snail’s pace, but the work has picked up speed in the last two years.

He visited 16 gram panchayats in the district a few weeks ago, to gather the opinions of the people about the K. Kasturirangan Panel’s Report on Conservation of Western Ghats. The State government in its report to the Centre recommended that habitations of people on the borders of the Ghats should not be disturbed. The existing forest area could be conserved, he said.

Mr. Sorake said that gram panchayats had little funds. They were now restricting their activities only to holding gram sabhas for selection of beneficiaries. They should focus on development activities, he said.

Presiding over the function, N. Santosh Hegde, former Lokayukta, said that when he was the Lokayukta of the State, he had submitted reports on illegal mining and illegal sand mining. But the State had not taken any action on them. The government should either accept or reject the reports instead of keeping them in a limbo, he said. There were two times more the number of below the poverty line (BPL) cards in the State than the number of BPL persons, he said.

Kota Srinivas Poojary, MLC, said the State government should fully implement the Ramesh Kumar Committee Report that had suggested amendments to the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act. This would go a long way in strengthening the gram panchayats. Fighting corruption was a tough job no matter which party was in power, he said.