Mother Cauvery statue in Karnataka: Money’s there for statue but not for farmers

One after another, a plethora of statues are coming up across the country. Since World’s tallest ‘Statue of Unity’ was unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 31, in Gujarat, the construction of several statues have been announced in different cities.

The latest statue has come in the news is a Statue of Mother Cauvery. This 350 feet statue will be installed at the Krishnaraha Sagar (KRS) reservoir in Mandya district. The statue will stand on a 125 feet base. Karnataka Chief Minister, DK Shivakumar told the news agency ANI that the proposed figure will be like a tower and the land already belonged to the state and no government money will be used in it.

The idea behind installing 350 feet statue of ‘Mother Cauvery’ is to reflect the motherhood of Cauvery and the emotions of Kannadigas. It will depict a woman holding a pot out of which water will flow down incessantly.

“The statue will be installed atop the museum complex and between the glass towers. The statue will be taller than the KSR reservoir. Except allocating and providing land for the project, the government isn’t making any investments,” ANI quoted Shivakumar as saying.

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The statue of Mother Cauvery has been approved by Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar and Tourism Minister Sa Ra Mahesh during a meeting in Bengaluru on Wednesday. Karnataka Chief Minister H.D Kumaraswamy who was elected to the CM post in May this year had allocated an initial amount of Rs 5 crore in his July budget to develop the KRS reservoir on the model of Disneyland in USA.

He further added that the global investors were keen in contributing to this project. Speaking to Deccan Herald, the Tourism Minister informed that the project will work on a BOOT (Build-Own-Operate-Transfer) model and tenders would be floated in the next few months.

The entire project is likely to ready in the two years and costs almost Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 crore. It has reportedly been conceptualised by a Jaipur based architectural firm.

The proposal of the statue of Mother Cauvery comes days after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had proposed to install a statue of Lord Rama in Ayodhya on the edge of Saryu river. It is to be noted that the Maharashtra government is likely to spend whopping Rs 3,000 crore for the 210-metre tall statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji.

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In Karnataka, due to deficient rainfall during the South West monsoon season, 100 talukas in the state were declared drought-hit. Following the same, the state sought Rs 2,434 crore as a relief.

On one side, the Karnataka government is seeking Rs 2,434 crore as a relief from the National Disaster Relief Fund while on the other side they wish to build a statue worth Rs 2,000 crore.

Cauvery River

The Cauvery river is a South Indian river, flowing through the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Both the state have been fighting for centuries for their ‘due share’ of Cauvery river.

According to reports, Tamil Nadu used to get about 602 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) of the total water. Karnataka used to get only about 138 TMC.

After independence, Karnataka would keep complaining that the arrangement was highly skewed in Tamil Nadu’s favour. It demanded equitable sharing of the waters.

Also read: UP govt proposes construction of 100-metre, Lord Ram statue in Ayodhya