Cases against farmers to be withdrawn: Yeddyurappa

A mechanism will be evolved for withdrawal of cases filed against farmers who held agitation seeking redressal of their problems in the State, said Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa.

He was addressing a function of offering ‘bagina’ to  river Cauvery in connection with Krishnaraja Sagar Reservoir filled to the brim, on the dam site in Srirangapatna taluk of Mandya district on Friday.

The CM called upon the people to vow for protecting the State’s land, water and language and also to  solving the problems of ryots. An ordinance will be issued soon to make the singing of  Kannada song ‘Negila yogi’ composed by Rashtrakavi Kuvempu mandatory as ‘raitha geete’, he said.

It was heartening to note that the KRS Reservoir had reached its brim 20 days before last year, he said.

All the reservoirs in the State are full and it would put an end to the energy crisis that plagued the State recently. Steps had been taken to supply sowing seeds and fertiliser to all the farmers since agriculture activities had started already. Need of the hour was to fight for remunerative prices for agricultural produces in order to make farmers happy, he said.

Platinum jubilee
The State government will take steps to celebrate the platinum jubilee celebrations of the KRS Reservoir in a befitting manner, he announced.

The life, achievements and personality of Sir M Visvesvaraya - the architect of the ‘Kannambadi Anekattu’ and the history of the dam should be incorporated in syllabus for the convenience of future generation, he said.

Mandya MP N Cheluvarayaswamy, Shimoga MP B Y Raghavendra, ministers P M Narendraswamy, Shobha Karandlaje and Basavaraj Bommai were present. MLA A B Rameshbabu presided.

Earlier, the CM visited Chamundi Hills. He told reporters here that the Chamundi Hills will be developed on the lines of Tirupati. The work on improving 1,000 steps here was being take up under the JNNURM scheme. He, later, visited Kabini Reservoir in H D Kote taluk and offered bagina.

Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai promised to approve the Kabini Stage II project which would supply drinking water to higher places in Chamarajnagar district.
The Water Resources Department has planned several programmes including irrigation facility and drinking water supply as part of the project, he added.