Farmers protesting over delay in issuing a gazetted notification of the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal order on water share to Karnataka called off their agitation on Saturday, after spending three days in Bengaluru and failing to meet the Governor.
Protesters made futile attempts to personally meet Governor Vajubhai R. Vala and submit an appeal. They only managed to submit a letter to an official in Raj Bhavan. For three days, more than 800 farmers from northern parts of the State camped at Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna City Railway Station. As rains lashed the city on Friday night, they continued the protest taking shelter under a tarpaulin. The protesters also said that a few of them fell sick. Many women took part with their children.
On Saturday morning, Deputy Chief Minister Govind Karjol met the protesters and tried to persuade them to submit the requisition to the State government. He told media persons that he he appealed to the Governor to allow representatives to meet him and was awaiting response from the Governor’s office.
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Eventually, they did not meet the Governor, but women representatives submitted the petition to an officer in Raj Bhavan.
Veeresh C. Sobaradmath, State president of Raitha Sena Karnataka, said: “We started our protest to submit our appeal to the Governor. Unfortunately, we could not meet him. Politicians get easy access to the Governor but farmers cannot. If the Governor is not interested in meeting us, what’s the point in continuing our protest? We will go back to our places and decide on the future course of action.”
In the requisition addressed to the Governor, the farmers appealed to him to address their concerns. “In all three States (Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa) and at the Centre, the BJP is in power. They should come out with a gazette notification on the tribunal’s award on allocating water share for our state. We will wait for sometime. If nothing works out, we will approach the court seeking justice,” Mr. Sobaradmath said.
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The letter states that on August 2018, the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal had allocated 5.5 tmcft water for drinking purposes for the State and 8 tmcft for power generation. The protesters alleged that politicians from the State failed to protect the interest of farmers despite the tribunal’s order.
Appeal to Governor
The Raitha Sena also appealed to the Governor to direct the State government to take up rehabilitation work in flood-hit areas.