Udupi: The Udupi City Municipal Council will bring in rationing of water soon so as to ensure that the water available at Baje dam can be used judiciously to meet the requirement of the city.
Speaking on these lines, district in-charge minister Pramodh Madhwaraj said that the available water in Baje dam, if used lavishly will only be enough till April 15 leaving the city reeling under water scarcity till the monsoon arrives. Though the water available now at Baje is more than the previous year, it is wise to resort to rationing as soon as possible.
Madhwaraj said that the plans to meet the water demands of the region with Swarna Phase II work has dashed as the dam at Shiroor has no water. Meanwhile, a project to build third dam across river Swarna at Shibra too is now said to be not feasible. “The planners should have thought of getting water from Varahi about a decade ago. If this was done, the city would have never faced water scarcity,” he said adding that since there are opposition to Varahi project, there will be attempts to take people into confidence first.
When issue of non payment of kerosene subsidy to traditional fishermen was raised, Madhwaraj said that the central government’s decision of slashing down the kerosene quota for the state should be blamed for the plight of the fishermen.
“The union government wanted to promote ‘zero kerosene dependence’ and hence the quota was brought down. This has made it difficult for the department of Food and Civil Supplies to get kerosene from the open market and provide subsidized kerosene to traditional fishermen. Such kerosene would have to be stores in kerosene bunks and its operation would have to be handed over to the fishermen’ cooperative societies. But, it would be better if the Union government came up with new system to provide kerosene to the fishermen,” he said.
