PADESUR (NAVALGUND, DHARWAD): The indefinite protests for the implementation of the Mahadayi project by farmers of Navalgund and Nargund have refused to die in the past two years, with people from all the villages of the two taluks taking part in sit-ins every day.Navalgund's Padesur village has been the epicentre of the farmer protests since the start of the agitation in 2015. The village faced acute drinking water crisis after consecutive droughts hit the taluk since 2013. People here decided to launch an agitation when Goa refused to release water from the Mahadayi to Karnataka . In a meeting on July 16, 2015, villagers discussed the Mahadayi project at length and how the diversion of KalasaBanduri to Malaprabha river would benefit them.Later, the village heads urged people to start a protest to build pressure on the Central and state governments on the issue. On August 1, 2015, more than 3,000 people on 100 bullock carts gathered in the village and started a padayatra to Navalgund, 7km away . In Navalgund, they held a dhar na outside Raita Bhavan Soon, people from the surrounding villages joined in and protests became routine.Members of Raita Sena Kar nataka and other organizations held a sit-in at Raita Bhavan on August 3.Ramesh Navalgund, a village leader who took an initiative to organize a protest in the village, said, "We can easily grow two crops in a year if we get sufficient water, but we are not getting enough water due to drought.Water level has come down in the Malaprabha reservoir, which supplies water to our village." He said all the villagers have joined the indefinite dharna in Navalgund. The villagers recently launched a letter campaign to draw the attention of PM Narendra Modi towards the Mahadayi issue. More than 100 school students wrote a letter to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention in solving the water sharing dispute amicably at the earliest to end the drinking water crisis in Navalgund and other taluks.Villagers are also visiting schools in the surrounding villages to urge children write a letter to the PM on the issue.

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