A Central Water Commission team today visited the Paragodu site and collected 'technical data' from Karnataka on its controversial drinking water project there which has evoked severe protests from Andhra Pradesh.
The team led by CWC member S K Das, which reached here last night from Hyderabad, held a meeting with officials of Karnataka Water Resources Department, Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Board and Mines and Geology Department and wrapped up its fact finding mission with a visit to the project site where they spent about 90 minutes.
At Paragodu, N Samangi, MLA from Bagepalli assembly constituency submitted a memorandum to the team and presented several people afflicted by florosis contaminated water, to eliminate which, he said, the project has been taken up.
Emerging out of the meeting with officials here, Das said the team would submit its report to Union Water Resources ministry "as early as possible" but declined comment on the controversy.
Replying to a question, he said the CWC has not asked Karnataka to stop work on the project, which envisages utilisation of 0.137 tmc ft of water to provide drinking water in parts of Kolar district.
{{/usCountry}}Replying to a question, he said the CWC has not asked Karnataka to stop work on the project, which envisages utilisation of 0.137 tmc ft of water to provide drinking water in parts of Kolar district.
{{/usCountry}}The state's Water Resources Department Principal Secretary A K M Naik said the state has presented "undisputable technical data" on the project to the team.
The visit comes in the backdrop of Prime Minister A B Vajpayee's intervention in the row in the wake of objections from Andhra Pradesh, which claims that the project infringed on its water share, a charge denied by the state.