Belagavi: Legislators has called for the implementation of the third phase of the Upper Krishna Project (UKP), citing pending irrigation projects and other development work in North Karnataka, and urged the State Government to put pressure on the Centre to issue a gazette notification on the project and speed up the land acquisition process.
According to sources, Congress leader M. B. Patil said that the land acquisition process has been vitiated due to confusion over the guidance value. He said that the government should clear this up.
Former Chief Minister H. D. Kumaraswamy informed that only 22,309 acres had been acquired out of the needed 1.33 lakh acres in the last 11 years. The majority of the Rs. 13,320 crore allocated to the project has gone towards to the construction of main canals rather than distributaries, he claimed.
He further said that just a few contractors, not farmers, had benefited from the project.
