TUMAKURU: The BJP and JDS held a protest against DCM and KPCC president D K Shivakumar, opposing implementation of the Express Canal on the Hemavathi river, in Gubbi taluk on Thursday. Former minister Sogadu Shivanna, Tumakuru Rural MLA B Suresh Gowda and MLA GB Jyothiganesh, all from the BJP, Turuvekere JDS MLA MT Krishnappa, a posse of religious heads of the district and thousands of farmers laid siege to D Rampura village.
They alleged that Shivakumar, as Water Resource Minister, had managed to get the project sanctioned to divert Tumakuru district’s share of Hemavathi water from Goruru reservoir in Hassan district to Bengaluru Rural and Ramanagara. His younger brother DK Suresh is the Bengaluru Rural MP.
The project, estimated to cost around Rs 1,000 crore, was commissioned during the Congress-JDS government in 2018, and work started when the Congress came to power in 2023. The plan is to draw 0.75tmcft of water to Magadi for the Sriranga-Hemavathi lift irrigation project. Opposing the Express canal, the protesters symbolically threw a fistful of mud into the canal where work is in progress, and warned that the protest would intensify if the project was not stopped. Pro-Kannada activists also took part in the protest, which went off peacefully.
Sogadu Shivanna told reporters that the protest was an apolitical one, and he had also invited Congress leaders to safeguard the interest of the district. “The district was allocated 24.5tmcft of water from Goruru reservoir but was not getting adequate quantity of water as yet. But Shivakumar is stealing from our district’s share,” he alleged.