PTI

Bangalore, Apr 16: The Karnataka government's announcement on implementing a Rs 200 crore project for constructing a dam across the Dandavathi in Shimoga district without identifying the water source has brought in much embarrassment for Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.

Kumaraswamy was virtually tongue-tied when a delegation from Shimoga called on him on Monday. The delegation was against the project announced by deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa for his home district in his budget presented last month.

Yediyurappa earmarked Rs 25 crore for the project, on which the irrigation department has not even compiled a detailed project report (DPR), a mandatory exercise required before the project's approval.

The delegation led by Madhu Bangarappa, Samajwadi Party leader and hundreds of villagers who would be affected by the project, if taken up, told the Chief Minister that it was an "unfeasible" project as there was no allocation of water in the Krishna.

As Kumaraswamy heard the views of the delegation which presented him a memorandum demanding shelving of the project, a senior project official told the meeting that, "No DPR has been prepared and there is no allocation of water to the project."

Dandavathi, a tributary of the Varada River, cannot supply 3.71 TMC ft in case a dam was built and the question of providing irrigation to 21,000 acres as proposed in the budget cannot be done, the delegation told Kumaraswamy.

Kumaraswamy assured the delegation that their interests would be protected.

"It is a sensitive issue. How can you expect me to react," Kumaraswamy told reporters later.

When scribes asked him how the government could announce in its budget "implementation of an unfeasible project?, he said, "It is the media which has glorified the budget," a remark which brings to the fore the differences between the coalition partners JDS and BJP over the budget.

The abrupt announcement of 53 new programmes, involving an outlay of Rs 220 crore made by Yediyurappa after presenting the budget, has irked the JDS.

At a meeting of JDS Ministers called by the party supremo H D Deve Gowda here on Sunday, these contentious issues came up for debate and the party decided to chalk out counter strategies.

Another event that has created a wedge between the coalition partners is the "vikas yatra" being undertaken by the BJP.