Cauvery row: Protests erupt in Karnataka after SC directive

CM Siddaramaiah said that decision to release water would be taken after an all-party meeting later on Tuesday evening

Karnataka has agreed to honour a Supreme Court directive to release 15,000 cusecs of water to neighbouring Tamil Nadu with a heavy heart from Tuesday, even as Kannada activists called for  state bandh on September 9 against any such move.

“Though we are in trouble, with a heavy heart we have to give this water. We will still ensure drinking water for the towns fed by these dams,”said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah after a three hour long all party meeting on Tuesday evening. Opposition leaders including BJP leader Jagadish Shettar asked the state to file a review petition against the directive in the SC.

The Supreme Court on Monday directed Karnataka, the upper riparian state to release the water from Cauvery river to save over 40,000 acres of Samba crop in Tamil Nadu.

Karnataka's dams face a shortage due to poor monsoon in the Cauvery catchment areas resulting in the state reducing the water in canals around Mandya, the district where the Krishna Raja Sagar dam is located. The Supreme court directive had whipped passions around the Cauvery river basin in the state. On Tuesday, protestors had declared bandh in Mandya disrupting traffic on the busy Bengaluru Mysuru highway and the state suspending bus services to neighbouring  Tamil Nadu and Kerala.  

Karnataka has put in elaborate security arrangements, including deploying Para military Rapid Action Force to ensure that there is no violence in the state. “Some have given us advice that we should go to Supreme Court again. We will again approach  the SC with a modification petition as it is difficult to implement the order in totality,” said Siddaramaiah. Karnataka’s counsel Fali Nariman on Monday had offered in the SC that the state could release 10,000 cusecs of water for six days but the Apex court increased the quantum of water to be released. Earlier in the day, Kannada activists called for state wide bandh on Friday saying that the  verdict was a grave injustice on the state.

"We will not release water to Tamil Nadu, come what may," Kannada Chalavali Vatal Paksha  President, Vatal Nagaraj   said in Bengaluru.

His grouping burnt effigies in Bengaluru, while protestors including lawyers took to streets in Mandya, where a bandh was declared.

The government has closed access to the famous Brindavan Gardens, adjoining the Krishna Rajendra Sagar (KRS) dam, where storage of water has been low due to a weak monsoon in the region.