BENGALURU: Major irrigation minister D K Shivakumar has decided to decentralise supervision of dams and reservoirs in the state. Each reservoir will now be overseen by a committee — an advisory body — headed by a minister from the region to act as a facilitator between the water resources ministry and farmers. Shivakumar on Tuesday announced that he had appointed ministers as chairman of these advisory boards on reservoirs to keep tab of water levels, best cropping patterns and engage with farmers.
“Every reservoir committee will be headed by a minister who will call for meetings between officials, local MLAs as well as farmers to decide what can be done in the region, given the water levels, including crop patterns,” Shivakumar said. Minister C S Puttaraju will be the chairman of the committee for KRS dam in Mysuru while Sa Ra Mahesh has been nominated for Harangi. H D Revanna will head the panel on Hemavathi, Puttarangashetty for Kabini, Ramesh Jarkiholi for Malaprabha and Ghataprabha and Venkatrao Nadagouda for Tungabhadra dam.
The committees will hold meetings to assess the requirement of the people drawing water for multiple purposes from the dams and appraise the water resources department on a regular basis. The quantity of water to be released from dams will also be discussed by the committee depending on cropping patterns.