Farmers belonging to Karnataka State Sugarcane Cultivators Association staged a demonstration in the city on Wednesday and locked up the office of the District in-charge Minister H.C. Mahadeappa, seeking immediate release of water.
The Minister’s office is located in the Cauvery Command Area Development Authority (CADA) complex.
The farmers were led by their president Kurubur Shanthakumar. They assembled at the CADA office with empty pots and staged a dharna demanding immediate release of water. Subsequently, they locked up the office preventing the staff from entering.
The key demand of the farmers is to release water from Kabini and the KRS to enable those in the downstream to irrigate and salvage or save the standing crops. The Association has flayed the Government for its ‘failure’’ to uphold the interest of the State farmers and claimed that while State farmers were being denied water, there was no let up in the discharge through the river to the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu.
Later in the day, around 70 farmers were detained, sources said.
