B.S. Yeddyurappa, president of the Karnataka Janata Paksha, on Saturday demanded Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar’s resignation for “sacrificing the interests” of people in the Cauvery basin.
Mr. Yeddyurappa courted arrest earlier in the day along with his supporters at the Krishnaraja Sagar reservoir during a protest against releasing the Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. They were released later.
He told journalists here in the evening that instead of releasing water to Tamil Nadu, Mr. Shettar could have expressed his inability to abide by the Supreme Court order and resigned.
After assuring both the Houses of filing a review petition in the Supreme Court questioning the directive to release water, Mr. Shettar had agreed to release 2.44 tmcft of water, he said.
Holding the BJP government responsible for plight of the people, the former Chief Minister sought to know how the State government agreed for the notification of the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, knowing well that it would harm the interests of the people of the State.
‘Water crisis’
“With the water-level in the KRS fast depleting, people in Mandya, Mysore, Ramanagaram and Bangalore are bound to face severe drinking water crisis in the coming months,” he said.
As a last-ditch effort, he had sought an appointment with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pranab Mukherjee to apprise them of the ground reality in the State and appeal them to intervene, he said.
