Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (EP)

Kundapur, Jul 27: Upa Lokayukta Justice Subhash Adi on Saturday July 26 inspected the Varahi project work here and took the officials to task when they said that the work had been delayed as people refused to vacate their properties. He demanded to know why the work had been started without completion of the land acquisition process.

The Upa Lokayukta visited the site to look into issues such as stagnation of the project since the time it started 34 years ago, the alleged injustice meted out to the farmers whose land was acquired, and in view of several complaints by farmers and lawyers.

The work on Varahi irrigation project that was started in 1979 was initially a Rs 9-crore project, but time passed by, the cost skyrocketed to Rs 569 crore, as of today. When there were complaints that despite the exponential rise in cost, nobody was getting water through the project, the officials falsely
claimed that they have provided water to 424 hectares of agricultural land. The villagers raised objection to this, and the Upa Lokayukta on Saturday asked the officials if the names of those who were supplied with water had been included in their RTCs. Assistant commissioner S Yogeshwar and tahsildar Gayatri replied that there was no such demand so far, and that their names were not in the RTCs. Listening to this, the Upa Lokayukta took them to task.

Advocate Sankattu Umesh Shetty, who was present, alleged that Varahi project officials had made an illegal agreement with a power plant to restrict the supply of water. Advocate Gopalakrishna Shetty, in the presence of Upa Lokayukta, questioned the Varahi official's contention that there was water for power plant but not for the farmers. The Upa Lokayukta demanded to see all relevant records and continued his inspection of other aspects of the project.

Observing that the quality of work was inferior for nearly five kilometers, Subhash Adi demanded to see the agreement between the contractor and the officials.

Speaking to reporters, the Upa Lokayukta said that on the outset it appeared that several irregularities have occurred in the execution of the project. A report will be submitted to after verifying the records, and further action will be taken, he said. He promised a thorough investigation into the project.

Deputy commissioner Muddu Mohan, SP Dr Boralingaiah, sub-divisional officer S Yogeshwar, tahsildar Gayatri Nayak, high court advocate Pavan Chandra Shetty, advocates Pradeep Kumar Shetty Kalavara, Bannadi Subhaschandra Shetty and hundreds of villagers were present on the occasion.

Press Meet

Addressing a press meet later in the evening, Upa Lokayukta Subhash Adi said that it was doubtful whether the Varahi project had been executed scientifically at all. "This is not at all a project that would collect water and supply it from time to time. A project that has canals interrupting the natural flow of the river is unable to provide water to farmers in rainy season itself. How can it supply water in other seasons during the year?" he questioned, terming it a project without vision.

"It seems like only after the water is first supplied to the power plant that is in the vicinity, the remaining water can flow into the canals. The local advocates have brought to my notice an agreement that states the power project should be supplied water only three months a year. I will ask the department concerned to furnish the relevant documents and study the matter," he said.

"The work on the project was started without completing the process of land acquisition, and without obtaining no objection certificates (NOC) from the forest and environment department and other related bodies. A detailed probed would be conducted into this. Investigation will also be done into complaints by locals that the project cost was wrongly increased by showing level land as rocky one. A meeting of different departmental heads will be convened in Udupi to gather comprehensive information about the project," he said.

High court advocate Pavan Chandra Shetty said that complaints have recently been lodged that the work on the project is in violation of norms, and this would be investigated.

Local advocates Umesh Shetty Shankattu, Gopalkrishna Shetty Shiriyar, Pradeep Shetty Kalavara, Subhashchandra Shetty Bannadi and others provided the necessary information and documents relating to the project to the Upa Lokayukta.