Protests over Cauvery issue spread in state

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Protests continued in various parts of Karnataka on Friday, after the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to interfere with orders of the Cauvery Water Management Authority and the Regulation Committee, directing the state to release 5,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu.

Farmer organisations and pro-Kannada outfits staged protests in the Cauvery river basin districts of Mysuru, Mandya, Chamarajanagara, Ramanagara, Bengaluru and other parts of the state expressing their anger and urging the state government not to release water to the neighbouring state.

Karnataka has been maintaining that it is not in a position to release water, after taking into account its own need for drinking water and irrigation for standing crops in the Cauvery basin areas, as there has been water scarcity due to deficit rains.

Protests have also spread to districts like Chitradurga, Ballari, Davangere, Koppal and Vijayapura. Farmers under the aegis of the Raitha Hitarakshana Samiti continued to protest near the statue of Sir M Visvesvaraya in Mandya.

They were today joined by Nirmalanandanatha Swamiji, the head of Adichunchanagiri Math, a prominent religious seminary in the old Mysuru region, which is also the Cauvery belt.

Addressing the protesting farmers, the seer said that the state and central government should present the facts before the Supreme Court and protect the interest of the farmers and people of the state.

He said the math will speak to the state government and central ministers on behalf of the farmers.

"There is a need for a distress formula (for water sharing) at the earliest." Karnataka Rakshana Vedike activists led by Praveen Shetty staged a protest in Bengaluru's K R Puram by blocking the highway. He and scores of activists were detained and taken away by the police.

Sloganeering -- demanding justice, blocking roads, burning of tyres and effigies marked the protests. Some Kannada organisations laid siege to Tore Kadanahalli (TK Halli) pumping station in Mandya which supplies water to Bengaluru city.