Cauvery Row: South Karnataka Protests CWMA Order To Release Water To TN, CM Delays Visit

Bengaluru, July 31: The Southern Karnataka, especially Mandya-Mysore region is literally boiling over the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) decision, directing Karnataka to release 3500 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu for the next 15 days.

While the pro-Kannada and farmer organizations have hit the streets of Mandya and Srirangapatna, where the KRS dam is located, the opposition BJP and JD(S) have joined the agitating groups. Meanwhile, the pro-Kannada groups are planning for total shutdown of Karnataka bandh on Aug 13 through a bandh.

Following the swift developments, the proposed visit of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Joseph Vijay has been postponed. Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, assuring the various groups and the opposition to protect the interest of the State, has appealed to withdraw the call for the bandh.

Soon after the CWMA final decision came on Friday evening, the pro Kannada organizations came on the streets, protesting against the decision. They joined the farmers, who were already agitating for release of water from KRS dam, which is almost hitting the dead storage. On Saturday morning, former legislator and Kannada activist Vatal Nagaraj convened meeting of all agitating farmers and decided to call for a dawn to dusk Karnataka bandh on Aug 13.

The agitators also opposed the visit of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Joseph Vijay, which was scheduled for Aug 3, Monday and said that they would protest in the airport itself. ``If Vijay wants to visit Karnataka, he should give a statement saying that they don't need Cauvery water. Otherwise, he will not be allowed to enter Karnataka,'' they warned.

Meanwhile, the BJP and JD(S) leaders also joined the agitators in Mandya and tried to move towards KRS dam, restraining the State from releasing water. They were arrested on the way.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister D K Shivakumar held a long meeting with the senior officials to discuss the situation arising from the CWMA direction. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Shivakumar said that the visit of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay has been postponed, and the future date would be announced once the situation cools down.

Assuring the farmers, pro-Kannada organizations and the opposition leaders that he would protect the interest of Karnataka, Shivakumar said that the strikes will not help to improve the situation.

I have convened an all-party meeting on Sunday, and a decision will be taken after the meeting. The water storage in various dams of Cauvery basin is in public domain, and we have argued with the same statistics. The Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) has ordered a daily release of 3,500 cusecs to Tamil Nadu. Similar orders have been issued in difficult years before — in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2023. Over the last three years we have had good rainfall. Last year we released water into the KRS reservoir early in June. Last year the rains were good, and we released more than 400 TMC instead of 177 TMC. Large amounts of water have already flowed into the sea, he said.

``However, this year is the least water the Karnataka has released to Tamil Nadu from the Cauvery basin. Until the end of July, we released only 0.6 TMC to Tamil Nadu, which is the least in the last 100 years. The water that did flow was mostly accumulated through rain around Bengaluru that drained away and not the water released from our reservoirs. Yet protests continue,'' Shivakumar added.