Southern States - Karnataka   

Action plan for Bagalkot soon

By Our Staff Correspondent

BIJAPUR FEB. 2. The Bagalkot Town Development Authority (BTDA) is preparing an action plan to acquire 3,269 buildings in Bagalkot, which has been partially submerged in the backwaters of Alamatti.

Participating in the meeting held at Koodalasangam on Saturday to review the Rs. 638-crore Bagalkot package announced by the Chief Minister, S.M.Krishna, in November, the Commissioner of Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) Wing of the Upper Krishna Project (UKP), S.M.Jamadar, said the acquisition process would begin in June.

Although the full reservoir level (FRL) of the Alamatti Dam is 519.6 metres, the water level in Bagalkot has touched 520 metres. However, the buildings located up to 521 m. have been acquired as a safety measure. When water was stored in Alamatti Dam to its FRL for the first time in the last rainy season, life in Bagalkot was disrupted because of the collapse of water supply and drainage system. The affected people spearheaded an agitation for complete relocation. Although the Government rejected this demand, it agreed to shift the habitations located up to 523 metres elevation. It subsequently announced a special package in this regard.

Mr. Jamadar said the survey found that 3,269 buildings were within the contour of 523 metres elevation and 3,563 families would have to be shifted. The detailed acquisition plan would be announced in two months. Compensation for acquired properties would be disbursed by June 2004.

He said the displaced families needed not wait for the final settlement. They would be sanctioned alternative sites at Navanagar in advance.

About the economic rehabilitation, he said many programmes were in the offing. A self-employment package would be announced for those who neither had land nor any other means of livelihood. Voluntary organisations were engaged to identify such families, he said.

Agro-tech park: About 280 acres of land had been earmarked at Navanagar for agro-based industries, and infrastructure was being developed. Many industrialists had come forward to set up food processing units, and they were given plots measuring up to 10 acres. Early commissioning of Bijapur-Gadag broadgauge and National Highway 218 connecting Bijapur and Hubli via Bagalkot, was necessary for industrial growth, he said. The BTDA Chairman, G.N.Patil, said a Rs. 29-crore project had been planned to improve the underground drainage system in the non-submerged areas in Bagalkot. It had been planned to clear all slums in Bagalkot and 80 acres of land had been acquired to relocate the displaced families. Parks and gardens would be developed in the cleared slums, he said.

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