Bantwal: To tide over the water crisis of Mangaluru city, the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) had decided to store water for upto 4 metre level in the newly vented dam with a storage capacity of 7 metres. However, when the stored water level touched 5 metre height, the fields in the surrounding areas were flooded washing away the paddy crops resulting in huge losses for the farmers. The fields are all in a submerged state now.
The worst affected is the Karandady village in Sajipa Munnur Gram Panchayath limits where more than 2 acre of fully grown paddy crop was destroyed. Local Zilla Panchayath member Chandraprakash Shetty visited the affected areas and interacted with farmers who lost their yield due to poor planning and unscientific approach by MCC.
Chandraprakash Shetty called the MCC commissioner from the affected area and joined farmers in condemning MCC’s unilateral decision of increasing water level beyond 4 metre which resulted in the crop losses.
The ZP member criticised the MCC policy on land value by splitting the affected area into urban and rural. Instead he demanded parity by splitting the land on barren and wet land basis and pay dues to the affected farmers accordingly.
MCC Commissioner Nazeer assured farmers of visit to the affected areas to take stock of the situation in the near future.
