Tipu Sultan laid foundation for KRS Dam: Karnataka Minister Mahadevappa

Mandya: Karnataka Minister H C Mahadevappa on Sunday said 18th Century AD Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan laid foundation for the Krishna Raja Sagar dam in Srirangapatna.

Karnataka government's water resource department website says the construction of K R S dam was commenced in the year 1911 during the reign of then Mysore king, Krishna Raja Wadiyar Bahadur, and completed in the year 1931.

Renowned civil engineer and Bharat Ratna awardee Sir M Visvesvaraya developed the project, it says.

The dam is built across the Cauvery River near Kannambadi village in Srirangapatna taluk of Mandya District.

At an event on Sunday, Mahadevappa said, "Tipu Sultan was the first who laid the foundation stone (of the dam) but nobody has the courage to say this. B R Ambedkar has said that those who don't know history cannot create history."

Elaborating further, he said there was a mosque on one side and a temple on the other, where Azan (call for Islamic prayer) and the temple bell rings would go simultaneously and Tipu Sultan would listen to both.

According to the Social Welfare Minister, Sultan had eradicated Devadasi system, pioneered land reforms and introduced sericulture in India for the first time.

"He was the towering freedom fighter who fought against the colonial British rulers," Mahadevappa said.