A delegation of farmers leaders from Jatt taluk in Maharashtra met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakkumar in Athani on Wednesday, urging them to release some water from irrigation projects in the State to fields in the border villages of Maharashtra.
A memorandum submitted by them said that they are willing to join Karnataka, if they are assured of irrigation. “Please give us water or include us in Karnataka so that we come under the command area of your irrigation schemes,” the memorandum said.
“As many as 40 villages in Jatt taluk are suffering from severe water scarcity. Our repeated pleas to Maharashtra government to find a permanent solution to the crisis have been ignored. Though the entire taluk has been drought-hit, the Maharashtra government has failed to declare it as drought-hit. It has only included a few villages, leaving out several of them,” they said.
