Representative image of work on a community hall in Karnataka.
Credit: Special arrangement
Bengaluru: The Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Ltd, set up for irrigation works, has spent hundreds of crores of rupees for building community halls, mutts and a handful of shaadi mahals between 2020 and 2023, diverting funds based on requests from MLAs and MP of Shivamogga district.
Over the last one year, cash crunch at KNNL has affected crucial works like repairing of canals.
“We are staring at pending payments of Rs 6,000 crore. A contractor who completed a work of Rs 2 crore received Rs 8 lakh after waiting for several months. In Shivamogga alone, about Rs 2,000 crore is required for several pending projects,” a source said.
Documents show that non-irrigation works were taken up based on requests by the then Shikaripur MLA and former chief minister B S Yediyurappa, his son and MP B Y Raghavendra and Thirthahalli MLA Araga Jnanendra.
The KNNL board is chaired by the chief minister. Under the guise of providing basic amenities to catchment areas of the Upper Tunga Project, the board spent about Rs 300 crore for community halls and renovation of mutts.
Of the more than 300 works reviewed by DH, 90% were related to construction of religious halls (Basavat Tatva Mandira, Raghavendra Swami temple, Sadguru Seva Trust, halls for Basaveshwaqra Temple, Kalabhairaveshwara temple, Nandigudi Bruhanmutt, Taralabalu mutt) and community halls catering to different communities.
Except for a handful of them in Belagavi and Davangere, all works were taken up in Shivamogga.
A few halls were also built for Brahmins, Billavas, Vishwakarma, Valmiki and other communities. The rest dealt with construction of roads.
Deepak C N, a state general secretary of Karnataka Rashtra Samithi, said the projects show a complete disregard for the harrowing situation faced by water-starved farmers and communities.
“Developing catchment areas, improving ground water and flood mitigation works should be the focus of KNNL. Instead, the documents show that they have opened a backdoor to pump money for works not in any way related to irrigation but only meant for vote bank politics,” he said.
To a question, KNNL managing director Rajesh Amminabhavi referred the matter to the chief engineer of the Upper Tunga Project Shivanand S Banakar. “We have received a complaint which was forwarded by the chief minister’s office. We will submit a report after an inquiry,” Banakar told DH.
A senior official in KNNL’s Bengaluru office said some of the works approved in February and March 2023 were cancelled after the Congress came to power. “Those approved in three years prior to that have been completed,” he said.
An official who earlier served in the company said budgetary approvals were given for basic amenities and rehabilitation works.
“The budgetary approvals are supposed to be followed to the last line. However, the approvals were taken for proposals that were vague and unrelated projects were added to the pipeline. Since the head of the government is also the head of the board, the funds were diverted without any objection,” the official said.