Mhadei basin locals shun Karnataka bandh, say project is of no use

KERI: The dawn to dusk Karnataka bandh, organized by Kannada organizations today to press for Centre’s intervention in the Mhadei

water

sharing row, received no response in the villages of the

Mhadei

basin, the epicentre of the entire controversy.

Police were deployed at the Kalsa project site in Kankumbi, Karnataka, near the Goa border, to avoid any untoward incident.

“Whenever Karnataka bandhs are organised on the matter of Mhadei, our villagers hardly participate in it as we do not stand to benefit anything from the Kalsa-Bhandura project. Our villagers are opposing Karnataka in a democratic manner. Today, our villagers did not participate in the bandh,” resident of Jamboti, in the Belagavi district of Karnataka, Vilas Kavathankar said.

Gangaram Awane, resident of Kankumbi, told TOI, “All shops and business activities in Kankumbi went on as normal. The Mauli Vidyalaya and government schools were opened and saw good attendance.”

While Karnataka State Road Transport (KSRT) buses continued to ply, buses of Kadamba Transport Corporation Ltd (KTCL) stayed off the roads, affecting regular commuters.

Activist Arun Sardesai from Khanapur in Belagavi told TOI, “Villages of the Mhadei basin of Khanapur taluka have been opposing the Kalsa Bhandura project since 2006 as water from their rivulets joining the Mhadei river will be diverted and taken into the Malaprabha river. Today there was no participation of villages from the Mhadei basin of Karnataka in the bandh.”

With Karnataka stopping work at the site, there were no employees of DRN Infra present.