Farmers lay siege to Cauvery Neeravari Nigam office

Condemning the release of River Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, members of Bhoomithayi Horata Samiti staged a protest, by laying a siege to the Cauvery Neeravari Nigam office near KRS dam in Srirangapatna taluk, Mandya district on Wednesday. 

They staged a protest in front of the office for a while and later, entered the office and questioned the engineers. They took Assistant Executive Engineer Kishore to task, for saying that the Executive Engineer has gone out on some work. Farmer leader K S Nanjundegowda asked, "Are you employees of Karnataka government or Tamil Nadu government?"

They vent their ire against the police personnel, who intervened. "The engineers have been misleading us, by giving different statements. We will not leave until the Executive Engineer comes to the spot and receives the memorandum," they stressed.

The agitators condemned District In-charge Minister N Chaluvarayaswamy, for saying that water is not released from KRS dam to Tamil Nadu, and it is only the seepage.

"Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had assured that water will not be released from the dam, during the all-party meeting. But, he has not kept his words. Irrigation and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar is issuing irresponsible statements on the Cauvery issue," they criticised.

Cauvery Hitarakshana Samiti members continued their protest in Mandya. Meanwhile, Raitha Sangha members staged a protest, demanding that Kannada film actors, television artistes and residents of Bengaluru should join hands in the Cauvery protest, at Koppa of Maddur taluk.

The residents of Bengaluru will also be affected, if there is shortage of water. Hence, they should extend their support to the farmers, they stressed.

Members of various farmers organisations staged a protest against the release of water to Tamil Nadu in Chamarajanagar also.