All hell broke loose when the the Supreme Court directed Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of water daily for 10 days to Tamil Nadu.
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Siddaramaiah said “the present storage in the Mettur reservoir and the North-east rainfall received in Tamil Nadu would be more than sufficient to meet the requirement of water for the Samba rice crop just being or still to be sown by the farmers in the state”. The KR Sagar Dam, from where the state will have to start releasing Cauvery water, is located in Mandya.
Procssions were taken out by the agitated farmers and other Kannada organisations in the Cauvery belt.
Protests erupted in several parts of the state with two epicentres – Mandya-Mysuru and Bengaluru.
The buses to Tamil Nadu have already stopped and it is most likely that the bus services will be completely shut in the state. We are facing injustice with regard to both the rivers, Krishna and Cauvery. He has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should intervene to resolve the dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over water sharing.
The government has taken elaborate measures in order to maintain law and order in the state. But the statement from Supreme Court was followed by noticeable friction among the farmers. “We will obey the order”, Siddaramaiah added. My appeal to public is not to resort to agitation and keep calm. On Thursday, chief minister Siddaramaiah implied the Karnataka’s government’s tacit support for the bandh in a statement to the press, “The state government has resolved not to oppose the bandh”.
The bandh will see a complete shutdown of the state and plans are afoot to block roads and stop traffic.
Escalating the tension in the state, Jai Karnataka organisation’s members came up on road to protest against the order of Supreme Court over Cauvery water issue. “We can not give water for irrigation to another state”.
“MSMEs have to suffer the losses due to bandh but we still support it as Cauvery is the lifeline of the state”, said Hanumanthe Gowda, Vice President of Karnataka Small Scale Industry Association (KASSIA).
“It is the relentless battle that chief minister Jayalalithaa fought through the legal system that has borne fruit today”, said AIADMK spokesperson CR Saraswathi.
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About 5,000 people, including Kannada film stars, producers and directors, marched in a procession from Town Hall to Freedom Park in Bengaluru and urged the government to stop releasing water to Tamil Nadu.
