Top Kannada film stars and technicians today staged demonstrations in Bengaluru to express solidarity with the farmers as part of the Karnataka Bandh to protest the release of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu.
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In Ballari, protestors stoned three lorries bearing Tamil Nadu registration plates. “This is the second time in a week after a strike by trade unions on September 2 and fifth this year since January”, lamented S.N. Murthy, a techie with a leading IT firm.
The neighbouring state would also be benefited by North-east monsoon rainfall in the Cauvery delta and also has better ground water position than Karnataka, they said.
The day-long protest is being spearheaded by as many as 500 pro-Kannada organisations, which represent sections including farmers, traders and businesses, and has the tacit support of the state government.
The Chief Minister also held a meeting of senior officials of Home and police departments to review security measures.
The Supreme Court in its order on Monday directed the Karnataka to ensure flow of 15,000 cusecs of water from the Cauvery at Biligundlu, a Central Water Commission monitoring centre.
“As directed by the apex court, we will also approach the Cauvery Supervisory Committee and present our case for relief, as we are not in a position to release more water to Tamil Nadu due to insufficient water in the reservoirs”, said Siddaramaiah. A day before the bandh, Chief Minister Siddaramiah made an appeal for peace and said, “We are making all required arrangements”. Further, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation has suspended bus services to Mysuru, Kerala and to Tamil Nadu due to the prevailing tension. 36 Karnataka State Reserve Police, 30 City Armed Reserve platoons and one company Rapid Action Force have been deployed.
However, as of Friday noon, the bandh called by Karnataka remained incident free at the border here.
As the Cauvery row heated up with the state observing a 12-hour bandh on Friday, Siddaramaiah dashed off a missive to Modi saying that the “unrest”, if continued, would have a serious impact on the state’s economy as also the IT economy which brings enormous revenue and foreign exchange to the country.
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The protesters ransacked the Mandya district Congress office because they felt the ruling party didn’t do enough to convince the Supreme Court of the water woes the state’s farmers were facing. In fact, his predecessors Mr H.D.Deve Gowda, Mr S.M. Krishna and Mr Jagadish Shettar, too, released water to Tamil Nadu.
