A series of protests by thousands of people continued in Mysore, Mandya and Chamarajanagar on Sunday to mount pressure on the Centre to stop water release to Tamil Nadu. Karnataka’s petition against the Cauvery River Authority’s direction is likely to come up before the Supreme Court on Monday.
The Cauvery River Protection Committee members continued their hunger strike for the fourth day in Mandya, and its chairman G Made Gowda said the people of the Cauvery basin would intensify the agitation if the state failed to get justice. Release of 9,000 cusecs of water till October 20 would be a death blow to the farmers and the people of the state, he added.
Gowda said the Central and state governments were testing the patience of the people, peacefully protesting for the past 24 days. Meanwhile, heads of several Veerashaiva mutts, including Sri Shivakumara Swamiji, Sri Gangadharanatha Swamiji and Sri Chandrashekar Swamiji, participated in a dharna organised by district Veerashaiva samaj in Mandya.
Participating in the dharna, former minister S S Patil said the government’s failure to come out with distress formula had given scope for a confrontation with Tamil Nadu.
The dispute took a serious turn whenever J Jayalalithaa came to power in TN, he said, and termed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s decision to order the release of water before sending an experts’ team ‘unscientific’.
Meanwhile, priests of St Philomena’s Church participated in a protest march in Mysore. Similarly, the priests of a church in Mandya also hit the streets.
The Arya Ediga Samaja performed a homa for a ‘favourable judgment’ for the state’s prosperity in Mandya. The city witnessed also protest marches by more than 20 organisations and government employees.
The farmers in Gejalagere, Maddur and other villages blocked the Bangalore-Mysore Highway for some time. Several protesters had tonsured their heads and took out bullock cart rallies to Mandya to extend their support to Made Gowda.
Members of HAL Kannada Sangha and JD(S) Youth Wing took out a bike rally in Mandya.
Bus attacked
At Maragahalli, some miscreants damaged a KSRTC bus on the Mysore-KRS Road by pelting stones. Police brought the situation under control.
The residents of Siddalingapura on the outskirts of Mysore blocked traffic on the Bangalore-Mysore Road. Members of various co-operative organisations led by Karnataka Co-operative Federation chairman G T Devegowda and Co-operative Union president Rajeev took out a march from Kote Anjaneyaswamy Temple to the Deputy Commissioner’s office urging the government to stop the water release.
Mandya MLA M Srinivas said the activists would stop the release of water to TN if the state did not get justice in the Apex Court.
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