VIJAYAPURA: The letter written by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to his Karnataka counterpart Siddaramaiah opposing the move to increase the height of Almatti dam seems to have united the politicians of Karnataka cutting across the party lines. Fadnavis had recently written to Siddaramaiah stating that raising the dam height would lead to a flood-like situation in parts of Maharashtra, mainly Kolhapur and Sangli districts.
Politicians of Karnataka have not only lambasted Fadnavis but also refuted his claims.
Former Karnataka Water Resources Minister and BJP MP Govind Karjol has said that a detailed technical study was conducted in the past which has concluded that the reservoir is not responsible for the flooding, and that the accusations (made by Fadnavis) are unfounded. “Floods occurred in Maharashtra even before the construction of the Almatti dam, as far back as before 1969,” Karjol said.
Citing a scientific study conducted by a Maharashtra government-appointed committee a decade ago, Karjol pointed out that the report found no link between the storage levels of Almatti and Hipparagi reservoirs and the flooding in Maharashtra. Karjol said that the final judgment by Justice Brijesh Kumar of the Krishna Tribunal II includes a reference to increasing the height of the dam. Maharashtra has not raised any objections to this in the Supreme Court. There is no justification in opposing it now,” he said.
Karnataka Industries Minister MB Patil, who also served as Water Resources Minister in the past, said Karnataka’s reservoirs were not responsible for flooding in Sangli, Miraj, and Kolhapur. Similar is the opinion of the Excise Minister RB Timmapur, who called the claims of Maharashtra as “baseless and aimed only at creating disharmony between the two states”.
Informed sources said that the Maharashtra government in 2020 had constituted an expert committee to study and submit the report. During that time, the team had visited Almatti dam where officials of Krishna Bhagya Jal Nigam Limited, with the technical documents, had told the team that the dam height has no links to floods in Maharashtra.
