Maharashtra CM agrees to release water to K'taka with a condition

Belagavi: Maharastra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has positively responded to an appeal put forth by a team of state BJP delegates, requesting him to release water from its reservoirs to the Krishna river on humanitarian grounds.

On Saturday a team of delegates led by Rajya Sabha MP Prabhakar Kore and several MLAs met Fadnavis who had also received a personal request from Water Resources Minister D.K. Shivakumar for release of water for drinking purposes in Belagavi, Bagalkot, and Vijayapura districts on the Karnataka-Maharashtra border.

Fadnavis has agreed to release water from Maharashtra’s dams based on the availability and with a condition that Karnataka too should reciprocate the gesture and provide water to parts of Maharashtra from its Almatti reservoir, informed sources. Shivakumar has agreed to the proposal and the modalities will be worked out by respective secretaries of the two States, they added.

The process for release of 2 tmc ft of water from either from Koyna or Varna dam has been initiated to ease the water woes of the drought-hit regions in the state, stated sources.