Mysuru: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, accompanied by his wife Anitha Kumaraswamy, Water Resources Minister D.K. Shivakumar, Tourism Minister S.R. Mahesh, Higher Education Minister G.T. Devegowda, Minor Irrigation Minister C.S. Puttaraju and Transport Minister D.C. Thammanna, offered ‘bagina’ at the Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) Dam last evening.

It was his third ‘bagina’ at KRS after he performed the same rituals at Harangi and Kabini Dams. He said that bountiful rain had brought relief to the people of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and described the current situation as “nature’s solution” to the problems faced by the two States over sharing of waters.

The four major dams in the Cauvery basin, including KRS, have reached their full-reservoir level after eight years, bringing much-needed delight to farmers and residents.

After offering ‘bagina’ at Kabini yesterday afternoon following his special puja to Goddess Chamundeshwari atop Chamundi Hill in Mysuru on the occasion of first Ashada Friday, the CM’s chopper landed on KRS helipad at 4 pm almost three hours late. He immediately offered ‘bagina’ and participated in traditional rituals.

This is the second time that Kumaraswamy offered offering Bagina to  Cauvery at the KRS. The first time was on July 20 in 2007 when he was the Chief Minister of the then BJP-JD(S) government. Also, he is the 15th Chief Minister to offer ‘bagina’.

The tradition of offering ‘bagina’ was set by R. Gundu Rao who was the CM in 1983 and it was followed by other Chief Ministers. Even former CM Siddharamaiah had offered ‘bagina’ in 2014 when the Dam reached its full capacity. Interestingly, only Ramakrishna Hegde did not offer ‘bagina’.

After performing the rituals, Kumaraswamy appealed to farmers to give his government a year’s time to prove its commitment to the farming community. He claimed the waiving of farm loans was not an easy task since Rs. 14,000 crore was earmarked as salary to government employees following a rise of 30% in the Sixth Pay Commission.

“There was pressure from MLAs to waive loans completely,” he said. “The Siddharamaiah government had announced a waiver of Rs. 8,165 crore. There is a pending amount of Rs. 4,000 crore which we have to clear this year. This year, cooperative banks claim they have given Rs. 10,734 crore in fresh loans of which I have promised to clear Rs. 9,500 crore. I need more time to bring in programmes,” he said.

CM also said that by developing Brindavan Gardens on the lines of Disneyland in the US, there will be employment to around 25,000 youths from Mandya, Mysuru and surrounding districts.

Folk troupes presented cultural show at KRS and many were seen taking selfies.

MLAs Ravindra Sreekantaiah, K.C. Narayanagowda, M. Srinivas, Dr. K. Annadani, Ashwin Kumar, K. Mahadev, MLCs Marithibbegowda, K.T. Srikantegowda and Appaji Gowda, Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Limited MD H.L. Prasanna, Principal Secretary, Water Resources, Rakesh Singh, Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Chief Engineer T.P. Thrayambaka, Superintending Engineer K.R. Amarnath, Executive Engineer K. Basavarajegowda and others were present.