BENGALURU: Activists of the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (Narayana Gowda faction) were detained by the police when they were attempting to lay siege to the Vidhana Soudha to protest against the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu on Thursday.
The activists took out a rally from the KRV office in Gandhi Nagar and raised slogans against the state and central governments, and the Cauvery Water Management Authority. They demanded that water should not be released at any cost.
There was heavy police deployment to prevent the activists from reaching Vidhana Soudha and they were stopped at Maurya Circle. Narayana Gowda said, “The government is trying to muzzle our protest, but it will continue. From tomorrow, we will hold a statewide agitation and will discuss about organising a bandh”.
Earlier, the KRV leader told Public TV, “Siddaramaiah should show courage like S Bangarappa even if the government falls. The government should declare that it will not release water, otherwise people will question Siddaramaiah on the streets. Our governments and advocates in the Supreme Court are failing, we are going to the apex court only after Tamil Nadu goes. The time has come for all Kannadigas to get down on to the streets”, he said.
Vedike youth wing state president Dharmaraj Gowda lashed out at Kannada movie stars saying, “They shouldn’t just make statement and put out tweets, they should join the protest like Annavaru (Dr Rajkumar) did. The Union government should immediately intervene in the issue and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah should make an announcement”.
Terming the order to release 5,000 cusecs of water daily for another 15 days as unjust, the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike pointed out that there is a drough-like situation across the state, including the Cauvery basin. The CWMA order is poison for the people of the state and the government should ignore it, the KRV noted.
Protests were also held in Mandya, Mysuru, Chikkaballapur and Chamarajanagar against the release of water to Tamil Nadu.