CM offers bagina to Cauvery after KRS fills up for first time in June

MANDYA: For the first time in its 93 year history, the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) dam near Srirangapatna has reached full capacity in the month of June itself. The dam has a maximum storage capacity of 124.80 feet.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah offered bagina to river Cauvery at KRS dam on Monday. The practice of offering bagina was started during the time of D Devaraj Urs as CM in 1979, but no CM had offered bagina to Cauvery in the month of June.

The dam was decorated with flowers, Kannada flags and festoons for the occasion. The bagina ceremony was conducted at 11.30 am in the Abhijit murtha, led by scholar Bhanuprakash Sharma. Several other rituals like Gana homa, Parjanya homa etc, were conducted earlier.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was accompanied by Deputy CM D K Shivakumar, other cabinet colleagues including H C Mahadevappa, K Venkatesh, Boseraju and other MLAs. The CM received a guard of honou at the entrance to the dam and also received grievances petitions from the public.

This is the fourth time Siddaramaiah offered bagina to Cauvery as CM. Speaking on the occasion, he said, “It is a historic day today and the KRS dam has filled up for the first time in 93 in the month of June itself. In all these 93 years, the dam has reached full level on 76 occasions. When we assumed power, there was a drought situaton and the Opposition blamed the Congress for it. Nature fulfils man’s needs, but not greed and we should not got against nature”.

Taking on the opposition, he said, “We have given Rs 3,000 crore to the Cauvery Neeravari Nigam, those who criticise us don’t give funds. The opposition only spreads lies. They came to power through the back door by Operation Lotus engineered by B S Yediyurappa. The BJP has never come to power will full majority and will never will”.

Further, he said, “We have given Rs 50 crore to MLAs in the Cauvery basin, but they said the government has no money and no development work is taking place. All departments have got funds and we haven’t stopped the guarantee schemes for the sake of development. Karnataka is No. 2 in GST collection in the country”.

He also said a monument will be erected to mark the occasion of the dam filling up for the first time in June. “People should know about it and I have told the CNNL MD and the local MLAs to get it done”, he added.