Arguments over distribution of Cauvery River water date to the 19th century; an agreement signed in 1924 lapsed in 1974, and all court-ordered settlements since have failed.
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The Supreme Court on Monday refused to cancel its order directing Karnataka to supply water to Tamil Nadu from the Cauvery river basin but agreed to reduce the quantum to be released from 15,000 cusecs per day to 12,000 cusecs per day till September 20.
Naidu also asked citizens of both states to maintain harmony and said they should not feel insecure to reside in other states.
Fifteen policemen were wounded after protesters set cars and buses on fire and pelted people with stones, L. Chandrashekar, a senior police officer, told Reuters.
Terming the “law and order” ground taken by Karnataka as “absolutely disturbing” and “totally deprecable”, it said that the averments in the application “cannot be conceived of to be filed in a court of law”.
It had earlier directed the Karnataka Government to release of 15,000 cusecs of water for 10 days as immediate relief to farmers in Tamil Nadu.
One person was killed and another injured in police firing in Karnataka as the Cauvery water sharing row with Tamil Nadu turned violent today, escalating tensions between the two states.
The city police has clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code as a preventive measure in Bengaluru city from Monday evening.
Officials said the personnel have been sent to the violence-prone areas of Karnataka and if need arises, some of the contingents will also be deployed in Tamil Nadu.
A tribunal award in 2007 that instructed Karnataka to release 192 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) of water to Tamil Nadu in a normal year has aggravated the dispute (it’s not yet settled how much the release should be in distress years). Siddaramaiah has called an emergency meeting of his cabinet at 11 am on Tuesday.
“We have also taken about 200 protestors into custody on the charges of rioting, arson and resorting to violence to damage public property and causing unrest in the city”, State Home Minister G. Paramehswar said.
Commercial enterprises continue to be shut-additional security has been deployed in many cases and a few such as Starbucks and Fabindia have chosen to sport the bi-coloured Karnataka flag outside their stores protectively so that pro-Karnataka protesters spare their outlets in case of violent protests.
In the capital of Tamil Nadu, Chennai, a popular Kannadiga-owned hotel and seven tourist vehicles bearing Karnataka registration in Rameswaram were vandalised while protesters created a ruckus at Karnataka Bank branches in Erode and neighbouring Union Territory of Puducherry, police said.
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The apex court also criticised the Karnataka government for raising the law and order situation as a factor in deciding the water release.
