Karnataka's water warrior Kame Gowda honoured with lifetime free bus pass after PM's praise

Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the lake-man of Karnataka Kame Gowda, the Karnataka government on Thursday honoured him with a lifetime free bus pass to travel in all classes of state road transport buses.

Sharing the information in a string of tweets along with the photograph of the bus pass, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has issued Kame Gowda lifetime free bus pass.

A shepherd from Dasanadoddi village in Mandya district, the 82-year-old hit Gowda hit the limelight for digging about 16 ponds for providing water for the cattle he used to take to barren hillocks to graze in his village.

While the animals used to graze, he would dig the ponds.

Due to the ponds, the greenery in these hillocks too increased substantially as the water table increased.

Recognising his work, the then Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had honoured him with the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award in November 2018.

The Chief Minister said the decision regarding lifetime bus pass was taken as Kame Gowda had expressed his desire in an interview to a newspaper.

While emphasising on water conservation in his radio talk, Mann Ki Baat, on Sunday, Modi narrated Gowda's story to highlight how the shepherd solved the problem of water scarcity in his village.

He even referred to him as 'water warrior'.

The Chief Minister too recalled that Modi had mentioned Gowda's name in his Mann Ki Baat.