Vikhe Patil to irrigation dept: Study concerns on Almatti dam

Kolhapur: Water resources minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil on Wednesday asked irrigation department officials to study concerns raised by activists over Karnataka's plan to raise the height of the Almatti dam on Krishna river. Activists from Sangli and Kolhapur districts, along with elected representatives, met Vikhe Patil on Wednesday. They claimed raising the height of Almatti dam by 5 metres — from 519m to 524m — would aggravate the flooding situation in both districts. They also blamed the dam for the floods in 2005, 2019, and 2021.Sarjerao Patil, convenor of the Krishna Mahapur Niyantran Samiti, said, "The minister asked the irrigation department officials to study the issues and submit the report within 15 days. Kolhapur's guardian minister, Prakash Abitkar, who was present during the meeting, assured that a meeting will be held in Kolhapur to address this issue."Patil added that minister Chandrakant Patil mentioned that Maharashtra is a party to the petition filed by Telangana and Andhra Pradesh against raising the height of Almatti dam. "Vikhe Patil said that a plan of Rs3,200 crore to divert flood water from Krishna basin to Marathawada has been approved. We told him that it is not possible as per the Nandkumar Vadnere committee, to which the water resources minister said govt will make changes in the report and get it approved by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal," Patil said.After the meeting in Mumbai, Congress MLC Satej Patil met the activists and assured them that the fight to stop Karnataka from raising the height of the Almatti dam will continue.