Desperate to tide over drinking water crisis, the State Government has decided to identify newer ground water sources. For this, the Government will identify water sources that are more than 2,000 years old and is purchasing advance equipment to identify water source and also to  draw water.

Speaking to reporters at Vidhana Soudha yesterday, Law & Parliamentary Affairs Minister T.B. Jayachandra said that the Government has released Rs. 200 crore for the purpose and the advanced machines will have the capacity to extract water even from a depth of 2,000 feet. “Technology will tell us the availability of ground water and its level. We have been unsuccessful so far and many borewells that were dug have not yielded any result. This new technology will come to our rescue,” he said.

This apart, based on the feedback from drought study teams in the State, it has been decide to remove silt from the existing lakes so that it will have more storage capacity. “We have constituted task force at constituency levels with MLAs as Presidents. In the first stage, Rs. 95 crore, in the second stage Rs. 106 crore and in the third stage Rs. 77.90 crore has been released,” the Minister said.

With the release of Rs. 1,712.10 crore for drought-hit Karnataka from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) by the Centre, about 10 lakh farmers will receive compensation for crop loss during monsoon (Kharif) and Rabi crops season in 2016-17. So far, a compensation of Rs. 671 crore had been released to 1.21 lakh farmers, Jayachandra said.

Compensation would be paid through Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) for crop loss to about 10 lakh farmers in the next 10 days. Deputy Commissioners and Agriculture Department officials have been instructed to verify Aadhaar numbers and bank accounts of the farmers, he said.

A compensation of Rs. 18,000 would be paid per hectare of crop loss on irrigated lands, Rs. 13,500 per hectare on rain-fed areas and Rs. 6,800 per hectare in drought-prone area, he said.

Though the State Government had sought Rs. 4,702 crore for crop loss during monsoon and Rabi seasons, the Centre had released Rs. 1,712.10 crore, he said. The Centre had not released funds for drinking water and purchase of fodder for domestic animals, he said.