Allow us to grow paddy or sugarcane, say farmers as KRS touches 100 ft

The water level in Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) dam, which was hovering around 99 ft for a couple of days, crossed the 100-ft mark, on Monday.

The water level of the dam was 100.20 ft on Monday evening. The inflow was 9,853 cusecs and outflow 6,000 cusecs.

There has been an increase of seven feet of water in the KRS dam in the last seven days, due to heavy rain in the Cauvery basin districts.

The water level in the dam on the corresponding day, last year, was 93.44 ft.

Farmers have now urged the government to release water to Visvesvaraya canal to facilitate agricultural activities. Pointing out that the KRS dam has reached the 100-ft mark, the farmers have requested that they should be allowed to grow at least one crop this season.

A few farmers’ leaders said water has already been released into canals for 20 days, but as there was a condition that sugarcane and paddy should not be grown, farmers had not taken up sowing.

Now, with the water level crossing the 100-ft mark in KRS dam, they should be allowed to grow one crop, they demanded.