Mangaluru: Activists of the Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha (KRRS) staged a protest in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office here on Tuesday opposing the ban on drilling borewells in the State for irrigation.

In a memorandum submitted to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, president of Dakshina Kannada unit of KRRS Ravikiran Punacha said that the water table in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi have not depleted alarmingly and hence, both the districts should be excluded from the August 20, 2016 ban.

He said that though the government had included Kadur taluk in Chikkamagaluru district under 30 taluks listed as taluks where groundwater had been excessively exploited, the government on September 2, 2016, through an order, allowed drilling borewells for farming. The same should be applied to the two coastal districts.

The memorandum said that arecanut was a prominent commercial crop in the two coastal districts. The only option available to meet the emergency is drilling borewells, Mr. Punacha said.

He said that if the government did not relax the ban in the two districts, many farmers would lose their crops this summer.