The latest upheaval in Karnataka, which has four dams on the Cauvery, stemmed from a verdict of the Supreme Court, which ordered the state to increase the water supply to Tamil Nadu.
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September 13: A pained Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday urged Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to display sensitivity and appealed for restraint and mutual dialogue as he felt this was the only solution to resolving the Cauvery water dispute.
One person had died in police firing while another succumbed to injuries he suffered while escaping police lathicharge when he jumped in panic from a three-storey building.
A day after outbreak of violence over the issue of sharing Cauvery River water with Tamil Nadu, IT giants TCS, Infosys and Wipro as also e-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon chose to keep their offices shut in the city on Tuesday. “Breaking the law is not a viable alternative”, he said. I assure that people of Bengaluru, Mysuru and all other places in the Cauvery basin will get drinking water, the CM also said.
An Indian policeman hits a motorcyclist for defying curfew, a day after angry mobs burnt and vandalized buses from the neighboring Tamil Nadu state, in Bangalore, capital of the southern Indian state of Karnataka, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016.
Mr. Naidu also urged the media to exercise restraint while reporting on the incidents in both the States. Karnataka officials told the court that the state did not have enough water reserves to share. The court order directed Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of water daily which the apex court later changed to 12,000 cusecs.
He said though the Supreme Court order directing to release water to Tamil Nadu is a hard one, “but we’ll still follow the Supreme Court order”.
The chief ministers of the respective states, Siddaramaiah and J Jayalalitha are expected to conduct talks soon to reduce the tensions between the two states.
Referring to the two incidents in Chennai and Ramanathapuram that was flagged by Karnataka, she said these were minor adding action was taken very promptly, cases registered and miscreants arrested.
Meanwhile, the tempo drivers association from Tamil Nadu has demanded compensation from the Karnataka government to cover the losses they incurred in the last one week.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for peace in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Chennai: Describing the violence in Karnataka as “alarming”, Tamilnadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa wrote to her counterpart in the neighbouring state, Siddaramaiah, seeking protection to Tamil speaking people and their property, hours after he had made a similar plea to her. We have to maintain peace and tranquillity in the society.
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Water Resource Minister M B Patil said the cabinet would discuss and “we will decide on what has to be done next”. The only way out is to follow court orders and tribunal awards, while managing available water within states better.
