The BWSSB has denied that a farmers’ protest near Mandya would delay a water supply project to the city. The board has proposed to acquire two acres of land to set up a plant to pump raw water from the Cauvery river to Bengaluru. But the farmers allege that they have not been paid compensation yet for the land acquired for the Cauvery Water Supply Scheme Stage IV Phase II. They are threatening to stop the pipe laying work near Netkal Balancing Reservoir.
The BWSSB is yet to possess the two acres of land to lay the pipeline for over 260 metres and carry out work on an open canal. The work is close to the spot from where raw water from Cauvery will be lifted. Farmers started their protest on Friday and work on laying the pipeline has been stopped for three days. The project has already seen delays. It was supposed to be completed by March, but it will now start only in July. It will get 500 million litres of water every day to the city once completed.
BWSSB officials said talks are on with the farmers to resolve the issue. “BWSSB minister S. Suresh Kumar, BWSSB chairman Gaurav Gupta and officials working on the project are in constant touch with the Mandya deputy commissioner to resolve the issue immediately,” a senior official in BWSSB said.
“A fresh survey is being done. The ownership of property will be resolved and compensation paid to farmers soon. We deposited the money with the Special Land Acquisition Officer and DC in 2008 and in December 2011. But the officials could not disburse the amount as the farmers had not submitted the required documents to prove their claim over the property,” said Narayan, Chief Engineer (Kaveri), BWSSB.
“I went to Mandya on Tuesday. I met the protesting farmers and explained to them that they need to provide proper documents and claim their compensation,” he said.