Bengaluru water crisis: ‘Not seen such drought in 30-40 yrs,’ says Deputy CM Shivakumar

Bengaluru water crisis: Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar said on Monday that the state has not witnessed such severe drought in the past three-four decades. He said that the government has taken things under its control and has arranged for water tankers to supply water.

"In the last 30-40 years we had not seen such drought; though there was drought earlier we had never declared such a large number of taluks as drought-affected. Wherever Cauvery river water has to be supplied, it is being done, but out of 13,900 odd borewells in Bengaluru, about 6,900 borewells have become defunct," he told reporters.

Meanwhile, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, criticised the central government last week for not releasing the Rs 18,172 crore fund for the state to face the acute water shortage. He said that the central government did not pay any heed to the Karnataka government to increase the number of man-days under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) from 100 to 150. He further stated that the Centre did not release the Rs 1,600 crore towards the payment of wages to MGNREGS workers. 

"It is true that Karnataka did not get money. The BJP in Karnataka says there is a way to demand it. Hence, we asked them to let us go under your leadership, but they did not respond," Siddaramaiah said.

The Karnataka government announced the setting up of control rooms at Taluk level and helpline numbers last week. Siddaramaiah had said that task forces headed by local MLAs have been constituted to tackle the drought situation in the state.