Bengaluru, 3 Sept

Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Wednesday said that the State government was committed to Upper Krishna project and added that a final decision on the implementation would be taken in the next two-three days.

Speaking to reporters after holding a meeting at Vidhana Soudha on implementation of Upper Krishna Project Stage 3, he said, “We have made an appeal to the Union Jal Shakthi minister and he has assured of holding a meeting soon regarding this.”

“We held several rounds of meeting on land acquisition, rehabilitation, redevelopment and compensation. During the previous Basavaraj Bommai government had fixed a compensation of Rs 24 lakh per acre for irrigated land and Rs 20 lakh per acre for arid land, but the farmers hadn’t agreed. They have been protesting about it,” he said.

“The Courts have ruled that farmers need to be compensated a higher amount. But it has been decided that higher compensation can’t be given. We will take all the farmer leaders, party leaders, MLAs into confidence and proceed. The farmers of Vijayapura have said they are fine with any just compensation. This issue will be discussed in Thursday’s Cabinet meet,” he said.