BENGALURU: If officials get cracking on the Yettinahole project after Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s instructions on Tuesday, water will flow into the Vedavathi valley as early as July-end. The CM held a meeting on Tuesday to review works of the Yettinahole and Upper Bhadra irrigation projects and has instructed officials to ensure water is released to the Vedavathi valley in the first phase of the project within a month. After the meeting, Yediyurappa said that moves to declare the Upper Bhadra Project as a national irrigation project are in the final stages.
“I will speak with Union ministers personally to speed up the process. The project only requires the Union Cabinet’s nod to get national project status. I will visit New Delhi for this if I have to,” Yediyurappa said. The CM’s proposal to visit New Delhi for the project comes at a time when state BJP leaders are still doing the rounds of the national capital to reach out to the party central leaders and when there are murmurs of his being called to Delhi.
“I will take it up personally to get approval for the Upper Bhadra project as one of national importance. If there are any irregularities in the project, I will hold the officials directly responsible. Irrigation projects must be impl ement e d without any loopholes. Stringent action will be taken in case of any discrepancy,” Yediyurappa warned officials. In the meeting, the CM noted that so far, Rs 9,003.86 crore has been spent for the Yettinahole project that is designed to provide drinking water to more than 68 lakh people in 6,557 villages of 29 taluks in seven districts of southern Karnataka.