K'taka: Farmers hold protest during Kumaraswamy's 'Janatha Darshan' program

Karnataka farmers on Thursday held protest during Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy's 'Janatha Darshan' program here in Ujalamba village.

They protested over issues of farmers' loan waiver, crop insurance and Karanja Dam among others. The farmers raised slogans against the Kumaraswamy government and demanded an instant solution for their problems.

Earlier in the day, farmers also protested in front of a bank in Mandya after it apparently announced the auctioning of pledged jewellery.

These protests come at a time when farmers in Mandya are protesting over diversion of Cauvery and Hemavati waters to their canals in order to save their produce.

Today is the seventh day of their protest.

"At this moment we are facing a deficit of water in our reservoirs. We have 75-80 TMC of water in our Cauvery reservoir. It's not possible to release water to them. But we are requesting the government to release water to our standing crops and for our animals. If not we will continue our protest and we are thinking further possibilities," farmers' leader Darshan Puttananiah told ANI on Wednesday.

Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy had on Monday shifted the onus to the Centre and asked it to direct the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) to resolve the issue.