Cauvery row: In absence of buses, Bengaluru bride forced to cross TN border on foot

Bengaluru: A bride walked 4 kilometres in her wedding sari, along with her extended relatives, as buses stopped plying and roads were blocked from Monday onward due to unrest over the Cauvery issue in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

According to a report in NDTV, R Prema, 25, is from Bengaluru and will be married on Wednesday to a young man in Tamil Nadu.

Prema has taken a bus, an auto and walked on the deserted roads so far to make it to Hosur in Tamil Nadu near the border.

From there, the group plans to take a bus to Vaniyambadi, over 110 km away, said the report.

The bride, a commerce graduate, is distraught about the state of affairs. She said that 600 people had been invited to the wedding but now only about 20 would turn up.

Calling her day ‘unforgettable’, Prerna said, "This is not the right way, both states should understand we are all Indians and we are one India."
While Prerna keeps getting calls from her anxious fiancé, members of the procession have their hands full of clothes, utensils and gifts for the wedding.

Violence escalated in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on Monday over the Supreme Court verdict on the Cauvery issue. Enraged mobs resorted to arson, stone-pelting and attacked vehicles with Tamil Nadu registration numbers. In one incident, 57 buses were set afire in a depot in Bengaluru.

In Tamil Nadu, buses and other vehicles bearing the Karnataka registration number were also vandalised.

Huge numbers of police personnel as well as RAF have been deployed in Karnataka, and in Bengaluru, Section 144 is in operation. Shops, establishments and schools remain closed. The situation is slowly returning to normal, but for Prerna, it is too little, too late.