Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced a substantial hike in compensation for farmers whose land will be acquired for phase III of the Upper Krishna Project (UKP). The irrigation project will increase the height of the Almatti dam in Bagalkot district from 519.6 m to 524.256 m, resulting in an increased water storage capacity of around 100 TMC.
The final cost of the project is estimated to be around Rs 1.22 lakh crore, including the cost of acquiring around 1.3 lakh acres of land.
Following consultations with farmers, activists, and other stakeholders, the Government has fixed compensation at Rs 40 lakh per acre for irrigated land and Rs 30 lakh per acre for dry land in submergence areas. For land acquired for canals, the rates will be Rs 30 lakh per acre for irrigated land and Rs 25 lakh per acre for dry land, with payments spread over three financial years.
Addressing a news conference, Siddaramaiah termed it a “historic decision” aimed at expediting the long-delayed project. “We are confident farmers will agree to the consent award model. This project will bring irrigation to over five lakh hectares,” he said.
UKP-III will result in the submergence of 75,563 acres of land, of which 90 per cent is irrigated land, according to Deputy Chief Minister and Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar. The land required for the construction of canals is 51,837 acres, with the remainder of the 1.33 lakh acres of land acquired used for rehabilitation. As many as 20 villages will be underwater once the height of the dam is increased.
Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal award
Siddaramaiah said the compensation amount will be disbursed in three financial years. Noting that the BJP Government had announced 24 lakh per acre of irrigated land and 20 lakh per acre of dry land, the chief minister said that farmers had rejected the compensation formula. Noting that though the final award by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal came out in 2013, the Central Government had not issued a gazette notification of the same. The chief minister urged the Centre to notify the award.
Shivakumar said that the notification was delayed due to objections from Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Union Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil has written to the state government assuring that another meeting regarding notification will be held soon, he said, noting that Maharashtra had planned to move the Supreme Court over increasing the dam height. The water awarded by the tribunal “is our right. We will fight it out politically,” the deputy chief minister said.
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The Government has also decided to frame a separate rehabilitation and relief policy for the project.
Project cost
According to documents related to the project, implementation of the project will cost the state a staggering Rs 1.22 lakh crore. This includes the land acquisition cost of Rs 47,757 crore. This includes Rs 28,713-crore compensation for submerged land, Rs 116,587-crore compensation for land required for canals, and Rs 2,457 crore for land required for the rehabilitation of the displaced population, and civil works of the project costing Rs 25,122 crore.
The other expenses for the project include annual interest payment of Rs 5,662 crore (at 6 per cent interest), rehabilitation works estimated at Rs 6,953.75 crore, and the cost of the acquisition of buildings and annuity amount of Rs 11,058 crore, among others.
With the project, the dam’s maximum water storage capacity—currently 123.08 TMC—will increase by an additional 100 TMC.
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“The project is equivalent to building another dam,” an official involved in the project said.