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.
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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.
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