Hero Image

Lok Sabha elections: Deve Gowda woos voters to whom he denied Hemavathi water in Tumakuru

BENGALURU: Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, who will contest from Tumakuru after giving up a safe seat in Hassan to grandson Prajwal Revanna, is in a tight spot: He will be counting on the votes of people to whom he had allegedly denied Hemavathi river water for decades, even as he faces a raging rebellion from within the Congress-JD(S) coalition.




Hemavathi, a tributary of the Cauvery, has a reservoir in Gorur, Hassan, and is the main source of water for Hassan, Tumakuru and Mandya districts. Since the time the reservoir pro-Mandya for fighting for Hemavathi water for the people of Hassan. Tumakuru and Mandya ject was complete, Gowda has time and again drawn flak from the people of Tumakuru and districts are entitled to 24tmcft and 6tmcft of water, respectively, from Gorur reservoir, which can store 36tmcft of water.

The remaining 6tmcft of water is Hassan’s share. People from these districts have for long blamed Gowda and his son HD Revanna for depriving them of water. “Gowda has to convince voters of Tumakuru that he will get them justice even though his grandsons are on the other side of the fence,” said BJP MLA JC Madhu Swamy, referring to the possibility that Prajwal may win from Hassan and Nikhil Kumaraswamy from Mandya.

Should Gowda and his grandsons win, they will represent conflicting sides while seeking to keep family unity intact.

Tumakuru and Mandya get water from Hemavathi through two canals, the Tumakuru Branch Canal and Nagamangala Branch Canal, but people from the two districts allege that leaders of Hassan have never let water flow in the canals.

“Since the commissioning of the project in 1979, Tumakuru and Mandya have never got their full quota of water,” said Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha Mandya president KS Sudheer Kumar. “Apart from encouraging farmers to lift the water from our canals, the Hassan leaders have successfully stopped projects to modernise these canals.”

The animosity reached its peak recently when JD(S) MLA from Arsikere KM Shivalinge Gowda threatened to blow up the Tumakuru Branch Canal, alleging that Hemavathi water was going to others at the cost of Hassan farmers. “My statement was misread. I actually said that the river water should be shared among the districts only when there is enough storage. But I am sure Deve Gowda will see to it that all the three districts get justice,” Shivalinge Gowda said.

“Worldwide, the best practice is to manage river water jointly, independent of politics and with a neutral dispute redressal system,” said Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People.

READ ON APP