BANGALORE: Legislators will continue to head the task forces formed for implementing drinking water schemes, Minister for Rural Water Supply Govind M. Karjol told the Legislative Assembly on Friday.

In a reply to questions from S.S. Patil and Jabbar Khan Honnali (both Congress), Mr. Karjol said there is no shortage of funds for implementing drinking water schemes. The panchayat raj institutions have been instructed to complete drinking water schemes by June.

On the delay in starting work on a project to supply water to Hirevaddatti and other villages in Mundargi taluk from the Tungabhadra river, he said the 10 per cent community contribution to the cost of the scheme, which is estimated at Rs. 2.38 crores, has not been collected. It will be difficult to implement the scheme without the community contribution.

A defluoridation plant has been installed at Hirevaddatti and 625 defluoridation filters supplied to families in the village, he said.

Mr. Karjol, who also holds the Food and Civil Supplies portfolio, said committees have been set up at the district-level for identification of families living below the poverty line.

Replying to Mr. Honnali, he said a survey identified 70,087 families eligible for yellow ration cards in the cities of Hubli and Dharwad. Temporary coupons have been issued to those families, he said.

Farm policy

Agriculture Minister Bandeppa Kashampur said the need for evolving a new agriculture policy will be examined after receiving the reports of the National Commission on Farmers and the expert committee set up in the State.

He told Shivananda S. Patil (Congress) that an agriculture policy was evolved for the first time in the State by the then Minister for Agriculture, C. Byre Gowda, in 1995.

Now the Centre has set up the National Commission on Farmers under the chairmanship of M.S. Swaminathan, agricultural scientist, and the commission visited the State and collected information.

The Government, in the budget for 2006-07, announced the constitution of a committee of experts to go into the comprehensive development of agriculture. Based on these two reports, the new policy would be formulated, he said.

To Vatal Nagaraj's question on the woolly aphid pest attack on the sugarcane crop in Mandya and Chamarajanagar districts, Mr. Kashampur said Rs. 1.38 crores was spent in the past four years to check the disease. Farmers have been advised to use bio-pesticides and introduce integrated pest management measures, he added.

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