Kannada Chalavali Vatal Paksha leader and former MLA Vatal Nagaraj and Kannada Rakshana Vedike activists on Tuesday staged a protest here against releasing 10,000 cusecs of water from the Cauvery daily till September 20 to Tamil Nadu. They were immediately taken into custody by the police but were released later.
The protesters sneaked into the third floor of the Vidhana Soudha where Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar was holding a meeting with the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah, his deputy T.B. Jayachandra and Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D. Revanna and Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council S.R. Patil and started shouting slogans saying releasing water would be detrimental to the interests of the State.
According to them, 45 taluks in the Cauvery basin districts were reeling under severe drought and people and cattle were facing acute shortage of water and fodder.
After the meeting, Mr. Siddaramaiah, Mr. Patil and Mr. Revanna said that the situation in Tamil Nadu was better as Mettur Dam had 40 tmcft of water while the water levels in K.R. Sagar and Hemavathi had not improved, as there was no rain.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said that for the second year, Karnataka was reeling under drought and urged the Chief Minister to convince the Prime Minister during the Cauvery River Authority meeting of the difficulties the State faced in releasing water to Tamil Nadu at this juncture. While Karnataka was not going get further rain, Tamil Nadu would get the northeast monsoon.
Both Mr. Siddaramaiah and Mr. Revanna said that even Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had expressed concern over the widespread drought in the country, including Karnataka. Let the CRA evolve a distress sharing formula, which was pending for several years, they added. Mr. Revanna said that Bangalore needed 20 tmcft of water, while Mr. Patil said that Mr. Shettar should explain the situation to Manmohan Singh.
