The Hindu : Vaijnath hits out at Gowda

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 21, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Vaijnath hits out at Gowda

By Our Special Correspondent

GULBARGA July 20. Vaijnath Patil, former minister and one-time associate of the former Prime Minister, H.D.Deve Gowda, today urged the latter to come out with details of the efforts made to speed up irrigation projects in the Krishna Basin during his tenure as Irrigation Minister and Chief Minister, and the financial allocations made to irrigation projects in the Krishna Basin when Mr. Gowda was the Prime Minister.

Taking serious exception to the remarks of Mr. Gowda about his (Mr. Patil's) contribution to irrigation projects in North Karnataka during his visit to Gulbarga a couple of days ago, Mr. Patil told presspersons here that the people were aware of the contribution of Mr. Gowda to the delay in the execution of irrigation projects in the Krishna Basin and he should not mislead the public in this regard.

Mr. Patil, who held the Urban Development portfolio in the Gowda Ministry, said that when the Telugu Ganga project was converted into a full-scale irrigation project by Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Gowda was the Irrigation Minister and he did little to stop that.

He accused Mr. Gowda of pumping in more money for irrigation projects in the Cauvery Basin. Irrigation projects in the State, particularly in the Krishna Basin, suffered when Mr. Gowda was the Prime Minister, he charged.

He said the State could not raise the height of the Alamatti Dam to 524 metres because of the stand taken by Mr. Gowda to please the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N.Chandrababu Naidu, Mr. Patil charged.

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