Proposed Cauvery Aarti at KRS Dam faces opposition

Mysuru: The proposed Cauvery Aarti in the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) Dam of the neighbouring Mandya district is opposed by various individuals and organisations for two reasons – its cost and religious nature.

Mysuru unit of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has criticised the Karnataka state government’s proposal to hold ‘Aarti’ for the River Cauvery along with Mysuru Dasara, at an estimated cost of Rs 100 crore. “The traditional offering of ‘Baagina’, whenever the KRS Dam fills to the brim, and Threethotbava rituals at Talcauvery of Kodagu district are enough, as religious events for the river,” said PUCL-Mysuru president Kamal Gopinath.

Pointing out that even the Finance Department has recommended against the ‘Aarti’, Gopinath said, “The state government should spend the money and take concrete initiatives to prevent pollution of the River Cauvery, from the chemicals from fertilisers discharged from coffee and other estates of Kodagu and different agricultural and industrial pollutants and effluents along its route through Mysuru and onwards.”

V Purushottam, general secretary of PUCL-Mysuru, said, “The state government should focus on restoration of natural rainwater flow into the river all along its route, by curbing unabated real estate development, which is cutting off and impinging on such flows.”

Purushottam expressed concern over the longstanding issue of pollution in the Lakshmanthreetha, a tributary of the Cauvery, caused by effluents from the tobacco industry in Hunsur and nearby areas — a problem the state government seems to be neglecting.

"The government should also focus on restoring lakes and other water bodies in the Cauvery basin. They are under threat from the real estate lobby. The Water Resources Minister should ensure that the villages, towns and cities do not become another Bengaluru, where lake beds have been usurped for urban projects, leaving the city completely unmanageable, unlivable, and on a brink of collapse”, said Purushottam.

He called on the Water Resources minister to take immediate action to prevent such a scenario.

Urging the government to stop aping the Ganga Aarathi, which is a part of the BJP’s political agenda, Gopinath said that the people expect better from a Congress government. “Hope the DMK government and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Stalin, and the Left government and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will resist such efforts of the Karnataka government to lead South India to join the ‘dharma’ bandwagon,” Gopinath said.