Mysuru: Women came out on the roads and wept over the Supreme Court order directing the state to release another 6000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu between September 21 and 27 on Tuesday.
Children joined their fathers in lying across the Mysuru-Bengaluru road and blocking it in protest. And members of the Kasthuri Karnataka Janapara Vedike donated a bottle of blood to the Mandya deputy commissioner, telling him they were prepared to give blood but not water to Tamil Nadu.
The outpourings against the Supreme Court’s latest order were emotional and spontaneous in Mandya and Mysuru, where the police has beefed up security to keep troublemakers at bay.
While in Mysuru, the sugarcane growers association staged a protest in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue, Kannada activist, Vatal Nagaraj, who had called for a Tamil Nadu border bandh, was prevented from locking the Punajanooru check post in Chamarajnagar, and was arrested along with his supporters.
Giving a call to intensify the protest, Cauvery Hitharakshana Vedike head, G Madegowda invited one person from every household in Mandya to participate in it. He also called for a meeting of people’s representatives of Mandya on Thursday.
“The judgement has pained us unbearably. We are not fighting for water for irrigation, we know there is no water. We are only protesting against the state government and our CM, who is releasing all the water available for drinking to TN. Sir M Visvesvaraya, who built this dam, did not anywhere mention that it was supposed to release water to TN.”
