From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Aug 6: Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has directed the irrigation department officials to speed up the desilting of 527 tanks coming under the five districts forming part of the Yettinahole Project so as to increase their storage capacity.

The chief minister, who held a review meeting with senior officials of the Water Resources department and also the local legislators of the districts concerned, including state Legislative Assembly speaker K R Ramesh Kumar, to discuss about the progress of Yettinahole drinking water project in Bengaluru on Monday, August 6.

The mega Yettinahole Project has been envisaged to draw excess water that is being drained by the Western flowing rivers into Arabian Sea.

The excess water of Yettinahole rivers and its five tributaries will be lifted and then channelized through gravitational pull and pumping method.

The districts of Hassan, Tumakuru, Chikkaballapura, Kolar and Bengaluru Rural will be benefited by the project.

The project envisages providing drinking water to these districts and it also aims at rejuvenating the depleted ground water level in these districts.

The tanks lying under these districts will be filled by the channelized water.

The chief minister directed to appoint personnel immediately to the three posts of land acquisition officers which have already been sanctioned.

He also directed the officers to work out the modalities of acquiring land and distributing compensation.

Apart from Ramesh Kumar, speaker, Legislative Assembly, Shivashankar Reddy, minister for Agriculture, D K Shivakumar, minister for Water Resources and Medical Education, Krishna Byregowda, minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, INS Prasad, additional chief secretary, Finance department, district commissioners of the concerned districts, MLAs and senior offices of Minor Irrigation department and officers of Vishwewariah Jala Nigama were present in the meeting.