Govt flayed for delay in holding parleys with Cauvery panel

Farmers in Srirangapatna threaten to intensify strike from today

Farmers continued their protest demanding release of water to canals and threatened to intensify their stir from Sunday.

An indefinite protest, launched by Kasturi Karnataka Janapara Vedike, in Maddur, entered day 30 on Saturday. The members of Savayava Krushikara Sangha took part in the protest. The agitators raised slogans against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Water Resources Minister M B Patil.

A few farmers including, Chennasandra Lakshman, Marakadoddi Jayaram and Goravanahalli Ramachandra started a hunger strike in the morning but Lakshman had to be shifted to a local hospital as he fell ill by afternoon.

Vedike state president K Rameshgowda said that though the farmers have been protesting for the past 29 days, no representative from the state government has bothered to approach them. He said the government is meting out injustice to Mandya farmers.

‘Cong leaders protect DKS’

Vedike district president V C Umashankar said that most Congress ministers are busy protecting Energy Minister D K Shivakumar and are not addressing their woes. They condemned the government for its delay in holding a meeting of the Cauvery Monitoring Committee. The meeting has been scheduled for August 9.

In Srirangapatna, members of Raitha Sangha began an indefinite strike demanding that the state government release water to canals.

The agitators, led by K S Nanjundegowda, gathered near Kuvempu statue on Bengaluru-Mysuru highway and raised slogans against the government and the ministers. They alleged that the state government, led by Siddaramaiah, is following an anti-farmer policy. “The farmers in the region have lost crops for three consecutive years due to deficit rainfall and are also suffering huge losses but the government has not bothered to supply water to save the crops,” they said.

Nanjundegowda said that the protests would be intensified from Sunday. Women, students, private company employees and businessmen will stage a protest in every village in Mandya district, he said.

Melkote MLA K S Puttanaiah, who took part in the protest launched by Rajya Raitha Sangha and Hasiru Sene near Sir M Visvesvaraya statue in Mandya, demanded that the state government protect the welfare of the farmers. He demanded that the government release water to all the canals immediately.

Puttanaiah said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not worried about the welfare of the people and the villages. The villages are on the verge of destruction and the farmers are being neglected by Modi as well as Siddaramaiah, he said.