Thousands of farmers from Mandya district overran police barricades and laid siege to the Krishnaraja Sagar Reservoir on Monday to protest the Cauvery Regulatory Authority directive to Karnataka asking it to release 0.8 TMC ft of Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu. The farmers, who came in hundreds of trucks and vans, paralysed the police force posted at the site to protect the dam.The agitated protestors closed the sluice gates and brought the outflow from the reservoir to a halt. In the ensuing melee, commercial establishments on the premises were destroyed. While some farmers jumped into the canal, others threatened suicide if water was released to Tamil Nadu.Addressing the farmers, Ritha Hitarakshana Samithi leader G. Made Gowda, KRRS leader K.S. Puttaniah and others opposed the state government’s move to comply with the CRA decision.They urged the farmers to forego the Ganesha Chaturthi festivities on Tuesday and instead keep vigil at the dam, fearing that any release of water from the dam would result in further lowering of the water level in all four reservoirs in the Cauvery basin.The crowd resolved to keep watch as they did not want a repeat of the Kabini incident in which water was released when the agitating farmers left the dam site. Some of them even installed a Ganesha idol on the dam.In an effort to quell the ongoing violence, Chief Minister S.M. Krishna has convened an all-party meeting in Bangalore on Wednesday to explain the nuances of the order (on release of 9,000 cusecs of water), to floor leaders of all parties. Krishna will also hold talks with representatives of various Kannada organisations and the Mandya Hitarakshana Vedike which has spearheaded the Cauvery agitation.
