CC Patil on UKP: Water will be released for rabi cultivation | Hubballi News – Times of India

BAGALKOT: Farmers in the notified command area of Upper Krishna Project (UKP) will get water for 119 days for the 2022-23 rabi season on Start-Stop basis.
The decision to release water for the rabi season was taken at the UKP irrigation advisory committee’s meeting chaired by Bagalkot district minister C C Patil at Vikasa Soudha in Bengaluru on Wednesday. Patil announced the decision.
As per the decision water will be released from December 12, 2022, to March 30, 2023, for rabi season for 119 days on Start-Stop (supply will be on for 14 days and stopped for the next 10 days) basis in five cycles.
Patil told TOI on Wednesday that the available water at Almatti dam is 103.73 TMC, and 5.19 TMC at Narayanpur dam. In all, 108.6 TMC is available in UKP. He said 385 TMC of water from UKP is required for drinking, vaporisation, backwater usage and industrial use, et al, from November 24, 2023, to June 30, 2023, and water available for irrigation will be 68.9 TMC, which is 5.9 TMC more than what was available last year.
The minister appealed to farmers to use water judiciously and take up sowing operations simultaneously from November 24 to December 11. He has also requested them not to use water for growing banned crops like paddy, sugarcane and banana, etc, and instead use it for cultivating crops like jowar, maize, wheat, sunflower, vegetables which require less water.
As per the decision, 50% of the command area will get water for standing crop (15%) and rabi crop (35%). UKP aims at providing water to 15.36 lakh acres of land in Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, and Raichur districts.