The day after Karnataka started releasing 15000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu as per the Apex Court order, the Congress Government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is facing the political heat within his party and from the opposition BJP and JDs.
Former Minister and Senior Congress leader Janardhan Poojary came down heavily on the Chief Minister and blamed him for mishandling the entire Cauvery episode. Poojary has said in Mangaluru that Government has failed to protect the interests of Karnataka farmers.
BJP blamed the Government for releasing the water to Tamil Nadu. Former CM B.S. Yeddyurappa said, "we don't have water even for drinking purpose, forget about irrigation purpose. Apex court should have sent an expert team to Cauvery basin to know the actual position."
JDS boycotted the all-party meeting and blamed Siddaramaiah-led Government for the Cauvery fiasco. Former Prime Minister and JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda wants Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene to resolve the issue. He would be meeting the PM in a day or two.
Meanwhile Mandya the epicentre of protests in the Cauvery heart land continue to boil on Wednesday also. Schools and colleges have been closed for two days and bandh continued to affect Bengaluru- Mysuru Highway, which links Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
With the Cauvery crisis, politics has taken over to haunt ruling Siddaramaiah Government ahead of crucial 2018 Assembly polls, which are critical for the Congress and Siddaramaiah. The ruling Government is facing the wrath of the farmers of Cauvery belt and the crisis would play an impending role in the ensuing polls.
Reiterating that the State was bound to abide by the apex court order under the Constitution, the Chief Minister said the State had accepted to release of water with a heavy heart despite being in a distress situation. He also ordered release of water to farmers in the Cauvery basin in Karnataka to douse the heat.
Meanwhile Kannada organisations and farmers associations have called for a State-wide bandh against the decision of the court to release water on Friday. Kurubur Shanthakumar, president of the Karnataka Sugarcane Farmers Association says Karnataka should stop releaseing of water. He says Chief Minister did not do much when 1560 farmers committed suicides in 2015-16. He said "this Government is anti-farmer. 258 farmers have died in Cauvery basin in one year . what has he done. They are not bothered about the farmers here but busy with politics. We have become scapegoats of this politics. We will continue our agitation."
Officials confirmed that water was being let out since midnight last night, shortly after the all party meeting called by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who said the decision to obey the Supreme Court order has been taken with "a heavy heart" even though the state itself faced "severe distress".
The present live storage is 45 per cent against the live storage of 104 TMCFT in the Krishnaraja Sagar, Harangi, Hemavathi and Kabini reservoirs, sources pointed out.