For the third successive day,traffic on the Bangalore-Mysore route remained disrupted as protests by farmers in the Cauvery basin region continued over the release of Cauvery water from Karnataka to Tamil Nadu as per a Supreme Court directive. Vehicular traffic between Bangalore and Mysore has been disrupted since Sunday,when the release of 9000 cusecs of water began. The protests are centred along the main highway in Mandya one of the key Cauvery basin districts. Farmers entered a Cauvery drinking water pumping station in the Malavalli taluk of Mandya district and attempted to switch off the station before police dispersed them. Some farmers staged a semi-nude protest against the release of water. With the BJP government in Karnataka and the opposition Congress not backing the protests in a major way and the main Cauvery river basin party,the JDS,approving the water release mandated first by the Cauvery River Authority headed by the PM the protests are headed mainly by local farmer groups and pro-Karnataka groups. The JDS,which has four MLAs from the Cauvery basin region,has seen its local leadership participate in the protests and court arrest even as party supremo H D Deve Gowda has held meetings with the PM to seek a review of the CRA orders. Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar on Tuesday reiterated that the release of water despite shortages was unavoidable since the Supreme Court on September 28 had ordered implementation of the CRA directive to avoid punitive action.
