The protests intensified on Monday after the country’s Supreme Court court asked Karnataka to release 12,000 cubic feet per second of Cauvery river water everyday to Tamil Nadu until September 20.
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Karnataka Chief Minister K Siddaramaiah on Tuesday appealed for calm and Kannadigas to cooperate, while also saying that he had full faith in the Indian judiciary.
The toll in the Cauvery stir related violence rose to two when a 30-year old man, who had allegedly jumped in panic from a three-storey building while trying to escape police lathi charge in Bengaluru, succumbed to multiple injuries on Tuesday. But when we are functioning within the framework of the Constitution, though it is a hard order, as a constitutionally formed government it is hard to violate or reject the Supreme Court order. It is shocking that a minister of the Government of India should attribute the September arson and violence in Bengaluru to “the provocations by the people of Tamil Nadu”. Karnataka officials told the court that the state did not have enough water reserves to share.
The Cauvery originates in Karnataka and flows through Tamil Nadu before joining the Bay of Bengal. Violence erupted in Karnataka on Monday following stray incidents of violence in Tamil Nadu in retaliation to the attack on a Tamil youth in Karnataka.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had directed the state to release 15,000 cusecs of Cauvery water for 10 days to help Tamil Nadu farmers to sow seeds for the next crop. The elected leaders of both states with the support of the judiciary will provide us a solution. This ruling was later modified to 12,000 cubic feet of water per second until 20 September.
Farmers in India are largely dependent on monsoon rains and rivers to irrigate their crops.
The main city of Bangalore is the worst affected: the violence in the technology hub forced the closure of many offices and much of the public transport system.
Earlier Monday, protesters in Tamil Nadu vandalized a hotel in the city of Chennai owned by people from Karnataka, triggering violent protests in both states.
Traffic snarls made their appearance again, indicating that things were returning to normal, said an IT professional, Siddharth Dave at Electronic City located close to the Bengaluru-Hosur border. Similarly, 59 vehicles, including 44 in Bengauru were damaged in stone-throwing and other violent incidents.”The situation in Bangalore and other parts of the state is peaceful and under control. After all, the two states had built with a lot of hard work the image of progressive areas, which should not be compromised at any cost”.
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The protests which have poured in from all sections in Bangalore only reflect the sheer disagreement of people with the Supreme Court judgement.
