Pro-Kannada organisation activists perform the “final rites” of the Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalitha and Karnataka Water Resources Minister M B Patil in protest against the Supreme Court verdict on Cauvery water, in Bengaluru on Thursday.
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Wide scale protests in state Capital Bengaluru and South Karnataka and scattered protests in North Karnataka have disrupted normal life in the entire state. Many private companies have asked their employees to work from home.
This is the second bandh that the state is bracing for in a week’s time and the fourth this year.
People travelling to and from the airport have been left stranded with no means of commuting available to them.
Keeping security of students in mind, schools and colleges have declared a holiday and attendance at government offices will not be compulsory, according to officials.
Similarly, factories, offices, banks, markets, shops, malls, hotels, eateries, pubs, bars, theatres and petrol bunks have closed in support of the shutdown. Explaining the stance the state took in the apex court, Mr Siddaramaiah said the legal team headed by Fali Nariman submitted that Karnataka can release 10,000 cusecs water per day for six days which was increased by the court to 15,000 cusecs for 10 days.
Complying with the apex court’s order, Karnataka government has been releasing 15,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu since Tuesday, triggering a wave of protests particularly in the Cauvery basin districts with Mandya being the epicentre of the stir.
The wisdom of generations of Supreme Court judges has been unable to find the ultimate equitable solution that would stop the states of upper riparian Karnataka and lower riparian Tamil Nadu bickering with each other, while Kerala and Puducherry watch with interest as they also have a share in the river’s bounty. Given the ongoing protests in Mandya and Mysuru, the bus services are likely to be impacted in the coming days. Posters and placards carrying pictures of Siddaramaiah and Jayalalithaa were garlanded and slapped with footwear and carried on donkeys to express anger.
“With the southwest monsoon retreating and prospects of more rains in the catchment areas of the reservoirs being bleak, the quantum of water (33.2 tmcft) will be barely sufficient for drinking water supply to Bengaluru, Mandya and Mysuru and very little for irrigation of agricultural fields”, admitted Siddaramaiah.
“We will give our blood but not Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu”.
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Steps should be taken on a war footing by the Central and state governments to get Cauvery water from Karnataka, to save the standing crops and farming in the Cauvery delta region, he urged.
