We are ready to give permission, says Water Resource Minister M.B. Patil Water Resource Minister M.B. Patil has said that the State government is ready to allow private players to invest in setting up solar power plants all along the canal network of all major irrigation projects in the State, and generate solar power. “We are ready to give permission to install solar panels all along the canal network in the State. But, so far no such proposal has come from any private party,” Mr. Patil told presspersons at the Bennethora Major Irrigation Project Dam at Harsur village in Chitapur taluk in Kalaburagi district on Monday. The government has no proposal to invest funds for solar energy production by installing solar panels along the canal network in the State. He said that the department has decided to take up a mass plantation drive to plant one crore tree saplings in the irrigation project areas in the State and in the Kalaburagi Irrigation Project Zone itself, 50,000 tree saplings will be planted. Senior officials have been given the responsibility to ensure that the targets are achieved, and the progress would be reviewed once in three months at the State-level, the Minister added.