The Janata Dal (Secular), which has been staging a protest over the Cauvery issue since September 8, withdrew its dharna on Wednesday night after the amount of water released from Hemavati reservoir was reduced. The leaders said the protest had been withdrawn temporarily and a delegation would meet the Chief Minister in Bengaluru on Friday.
Speaking to presspersons late in the evening on Wednesday, former Minister and MLA H.D.Revanna said a decision on continuing the protest would be taken after meeting the Chief Minister. Listing the party’s demands, he said the government should stop releasing water from Hemavati reservoir, announce compensation for farmers, and withdraw the government order restricting drilling new borewells in the district.
“We will discuss these demands with the Chief Minister. All these days more amount of water was released from Hemavati reservoir compared to other dams in the Cauvery basin. Had the government held the irrigation consultative committee meetings regularly and released water for agriculture activities, the farmers would not have found fault with the government”, he said.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had also called up Mr. Revanna over the phone and requested him to end the protest.
Following the protest by JD(S) leaders, the State government had decreased the outflow from the reservoir. As on Thursday morning, the outflow to the river was 3,240 cusecs. On Wednesday morning the outflow was 5,250 cusecs. Two days ago, the outflow was as high as 8,500 cusecs.
Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and party functionary A.T. Ramaswamy had alsp criticised the government for releasing more water from the reservoir. Mr. Revanna had commented that the government was targeting farmers of Hassan, as the district had been represented by five JD(S) MLAs.
As on Thursday morning, the outflow from the reservoir was 6,570 cusecs, including 3,240 cusecs to the river. The gross storage is only 09.186 tmc ft., of which live is only 04.814 tmc ft.
