Mangaluru, August 17: Mayor Bhaskar Moily said that water supply to the city was hampered as the water level in the Tumbe dam is increased due to flood situation in Netravati river.

After visiting the newly constructed Tumbe dam along with deputy mayor Muhammad K, standing committee presidents and officials on Friday, he told media persons that as the water level was increased to 9.1 mts in the dam, pumping was stopped on Thursday night. But late night, pumping was started. Mescom was supplying power to the Tumbe dam from Bantwala sub-station. The power line passed below near the dam and when the water level increased to 9.1 mts in the dam, the power line would touch the water. So, as a precautionary measure, the MESCOM would disconnect the power supply as soon as the water level increased to 8.5 mts height due to which water supply was hampered, he said.

On August 14 night, the water level in the dam was increased to 8.2 mts and the MESCOM had disconnected the power supply. On August 15 from 3.45 am to 7.10 am, the water level again rose to 8.8 mts and on August 16 at 6.35 pm, the water level increased to 8.9 mts. As the power connection was hampered during this time, water was not pumped. On Friday morning, the water level came down to 7.9 mts and water pumping was started. As and when the water level increased in the dam, the water supply to Mangaluru city, Ullala and Bantwala get disruption in water supply, he said.

Tumbe gets record 11.9 mts water level!

Presently, there was no problem due to increase in water level in the dam. In 1974, Tumbe old dam had recorded 11.9 mts water level which is the highest water level recorded in the history of the dam, he said.

City Corporation chief whip Shashidhar Hegde, standing committee presidents Praveen Chandra Alva, and Naveen D’Souza, corporator Deepak Poojary, Commissioner Muhammad Nazeer, officers Linge Gowda and Naresh Shenoy were present.

Poligio fibre bags to check collapse of dam retention wall!

The retention wall of the Tumbe dam pump house was collapsed in some places. Around six months ago, around 35 mts long retention wall was collapsed and now, another 20 mts was damaged. In order to stop this temporarily, poligio fibre bags (huge sand-filled bags) which were placed in the sea erosion places in Ullala, would be placed. The experts of the Hyderabad-based company which laid the bags at Ullala, visited the Tumbe dam on Thursday and reviewed the situation. Once they give the proposal, the work to lay the sand bags would start by December. The work has to take up when the water level decreased to 4 mts. In order to construct permanent retention wall, the city corporation would require Rs 15 crore and the corporation has submitted a proposal for Rs 10 crore to the government, said deputy mayor Muhammad K.

 

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Washington (PTI): There are not too many more vibrant democracies in the world than India, the White House has said, applauding the people of India for exercising their right to vote.

White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby was responding to a question on the ongoing Indian elections in which more than 969 million people are exercising their right to franchise at one million polling stations to elect 545 Members of Parliament from thousands of candidates representing as many as 2,660 registered political parties.

The voting will conclude on June 1. The votes will be counted and the results will be declared on June 4.

“Not too many more vibrant democracies in the world than India. And we applaud the Indian people for exercising, you know, their ability to vote, and to have a voice in their future government. And we wish them well throughout the process, of course,” Kirby told reporters at a news conference here.

Responding to another question, Kirby said the India-US relationship has strengthened under Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular during the last three years of the Biden administration.

“Our relationship with India is extremely close and getting closer,” he said.

“You saw it on a State Visit (last June). We launched all kinds of new initiatives, working on critical emerging technologies together, and bolstering and expanding the relevance of the Indo-Pacific quad, of course, which India is a part of. And then, just the people-to-people exchanges, and the military that we share with India,” Kirby said.

It's a very vibrant, very active partnership, he said.

"We are grateful for Prime Minister Modi's leadership,” said the senior White House official.

When asked if President Joe Biden believes that India and Japan are xenophobic countries, he replied in the negative and said the president was making a broader point.

“I mean, the president was making a broader point here about the vibrancy of our own democracy, here in the United States, and how inclusive and participatory it is,” Kirby said.

Biden earlier this month had called Japan and India "xenophobic", grouping them with Russia and China as countries that "don't want immigrants".