Entry to tourists only after 5 pm

Mandya / Srirangapatna: With the indefinite stir launched by the farmers at Mandya seeking immediate release of water to KRS and Hemavathi Canals entering the eighth day and the deadline set to the Government for releasing water also having ended today at 11 am, hundreds of farmers thronged the KRS Dam in Srirangapatna taluk to lay siege to the Dam this afternoon.

The farmers, led by KRRS leader Darshan Puttannaiah and armed with tools required to open up sluice gates, left Mandya after the 11 am deadline ended with no sign of the Government meeting their demand of releasing water to Canals and reached KRS, passing through Pandavapura town and other villages in the afternoon.

With farmers threatening to lay siege to the KRS Dam and opening up the sluice gates themselves, the Mandya Police provided tight security around the Dam. Due to the protest of farmers, the world famous Brindavan Gardens was to open for tourists today only after 5 pm as a precautionary measure, according to the Police.

Even as the farmers were getting prepared to enter inside the Dam, the Police were bracing themselves for taking the agitating farmers into preventive custody.

The Police had deployed a large number of Police personnel at the East, West and Central entry gates of the Dam and had installed barricades in the vicinity of the Dam’s main entrance, in order to prevent the agitating farmers from entering the Dam. The Police had also got KSRTC buses stationed near the main entrance of the Dam for taking the farmers into preventive custody.

Mandya SP Shivaprakash Devaraj said that 6 Dy.SPs, 10 CPIs, 12 PSIs, 4 DAR and 2 KSRP battalions and 150 local Police personnel have been deployed around the Dam for preventing any untoward incidents.