Mysore/Mysuru: Stating that the KRS Dam was built over 95 years ago, retired Tahsildar Badrinath said that Karnataka can irrigate 1.25 lakh acres of land from the KRS reservoir as per an agreement reached between the erstwhile Mysore rulers and Madras Presidency then. But the State is using the water only for irrigating just over 96,000 acres of land, he lamented.

Addressing a press meet here on Wednesday, Badrinath regretted that though the State Government has many plans for utilising its legitimate quantity of water, it has not executed them completely. Noting that several villages coming under B.G. Pura Hobli in Malavalli taluk of Mandya district are yet to receive KRS water, he urged the Government to execute the plans and irrigate 1.25 lakh acres of land from KRS water.

Claiming that the Tamil Nadu Government is taking advantage of Karnataka’s unscientific power generation plants in the upper end of KRS, from where water can flow to Tamil Nadu, he reiterated that the Karnataka Government must act immediately for executing plans to irrigate 1.25 lakh acres from the reservoir.