JD(S) workers stage dharna demanding water release

July 29, 2017 12:43 am | Updated 12:43 am IST - Hassan

Fight for water:  Workers of the Janata Dal (Secular), led by A.T. Ramaswamy, former MLA,  began an indefinite protest demanding the release of water from Hemavati reservoir at Gorur, in Hassan on Friday.

Fight for water: Workers of the Janata Dal (Secular), led by A.T. Ramaswamy, former MLA, began an indefinite protest demanding the release of water from Hemavati reservoir at Gorur, in Hassan on Friday.

Leaders of the Janata Dal (Secular) staged a dharna in front of the office of the Chief Engineer of Hemavati Dam Division at Gorur in Hassan taluk demanding that the water available in the reservoir be released to the canals so that tanks could be filled up and the drinking water crisis could be addressed.

Hundreds of party workers assembled in front of the Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Limited office at Gorur and raised slogans for the release of water.

A.T. Ramaswamy, former MLA, who led the protest, said it would continue until the water was released from the reservoir. “We will continue the protest for 24 hours in a day until water is released to the canals. Senior leaders of the party including former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda joined the protest,” he said.

Mr. Ramaswamy suspected that the delay in releasing water from the reservoir might benefit Tamil Nadu in the end. “It seems the State government wants to give Tamil Nadu the benefit by not making use of the water available now. The farmers of the district may lose water if the Supreme Court directs the State government to release water to the neighbouring State,” he said.

The leaders of the BJP had also planned a series of protests to pressurise the State government to release water from the reservoir.

As on Friday morning, the water level in the reservoir stood at 2,892.51 ft against the full reservoir level of 2,922 ft. The total water available is 14.12 TMC (live storage). The inflow was at the rate of 3,195 cusecs, which was lesser than the previous day’s inflow.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.