Karnataka govt finally gives nod for long-pending Maskinala irrigation project

Bengaluru: Ahead of the upcoming by-polls to Maski and Basavakalyan assembly segments, the Karnataka government has finally given its approval to the Maski Nala irrigation project in Raichur district. The order to this effect was passed on Friday.

The government said it has accorded administrative sanction to the Detailed Project Report (DPR) with an estimated cost of Rs 52.54 crore as allotted in the year 2018 -19 for the remodeling of the left bank and right bank canals and their distributaries.

According to sources in the irrigation department, this project was a long pending demand of people in the region, which finally got the government nod.

Maski assembly constituency fell vacant after the sitting Congress MLA Pratap Gouda Patil resigned from the assembly in 2019 along with 15 other MLAs triggering a political crisis in the state with the fall of the coalition government of Congress and the JD(S), led by H D Kumaraswamy.

The bypoll for the Basavakalyan assembly constituency was warranted by the demise of the sitting Congress MLA B Narayan Rao due to coronavirus in a hospital in Bengaluru on September 24. Basavakalyan in Bidar district of North Karnataka is located just at the border of Maharashtra.