Scores of farmers staged a demonstration in the city on Wednesday urging the authorities to release water from the dams for irrigation.
The members of the Federation of Farmers’ Associations and the Karnataka State Sugarcane Cultivators’ Association said that a meeting of the Irrigation Consultative Committee should be convened at once to release water from the KRS and Kabini reservoirs. This is to help fill the water bodies and tanks in the downstream as the water is required to irrigate thousands of acres.
Reservoirs full
Kurubur Shanthakumar, president of the Federation, said there was copious rainfall during the monsoon last year and hence all the major reservoirs are full. There was adequate water in the dams to ensure drinking water requirements of the people living in the cities and towns in the downstream region as also to help irrigate the fields.
He said there were standing crops on 1l akh hectares and they risk withering in case there was no timely release of water.
The representatives of the Command Area Development Authority met the farmers and received the memorandum seeking water release and assured them of suitable action.
