M'rashtra against raising of Almatti Dam height

After crossing swords with Andhra Pradesh government over Babhali barrage on Godavari river in Marathwada region, Maharashtra government is all set to clash with Karnataka government over raising the height of the Almatti Dam in Bagalkote in North Karnataka on the Krishna river.

Maharashtra will oppose the raising of the height of the Almatti Dam in Karnataka as it will flood even the Karhad town which is almost 90 km from the Maharashtra-Karnataka border, said Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil.

The issue of water discharge from Almatti Dam on Krishna river in Karnataka during the monsoons has become a contentious issue, over last two years.

Maharashtra government argues that the Karnataka government, instead of gradually allowing the Almatti dam to fill up during the monsoons, Karnataka tries to fill it during the early spells of rains. It then closes the sluice gates, which results in the flooding of cities like Kolhapur and Sangli and if it rains heavily subsequently.

However, Patil expressed satisfaction that, this year Karnataka government has agreed to fill up the dam gradually throughout the monsoon, which has resulted in early receding of water from city like Sangli.

But if Almatti dam¿s height is allowed to raise by 5 meters then during monsoon season, important market town in the Southern Maharashtra like Karhad will be constantly on the edge during the monsoons, he claimed.

However, he admitted fact that, so far the state government has not able to convince the Centre that the Almatti Dam is causing floods in the southern parts of the state and assured that the state government will leave no stone unturned for this cause.

He also said, the state will press for granting more funds to Maharashtra under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Program (AIBP) as land which been brought under irrigation in the state, is nearly half of the national average.

The national average of irrigated land is around 38 per cent while it is only 16 per cent in case of Maharashtra.

In fact we are going to ask Centre to prepare a programme to help all the irrigation-deficient states like Maharashtra to implement irrigation projects at much faster rate, Patil suggested.