Adichunchanagiri seer joins Cauvery water agitation

The ongoing agitation in Mandya, Mysore and Chamarajnagar districts against the Cauvery River Authority’s (CRA) order to release 9,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu daily till October 15 gained more vigour on Sunday with Adichunchanagiri Mutt seer Balagangadharanatha Swami joining the agitation.

The seer of the Vokkaliga community participated in the dharna organised by Cauvery Hitha Rakshana Samithi and declared: “Cauvery is Karnataka’s asset and nobody can snatch it from us. Nobody has the right to say that it belongs to others. Karnataka should not release water to Tamil Nadu by sacrificing the interests of the farmers in the state under any circumstances.”

“The Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) dam was built to meet the needs of state farmers and not Tamil Nadu,” Balagangadharanatha added.

He exhorted people in the state to fight against the alleged misuse of Cauvery water in the name of judiciary. “We should unite in our fight to protect our land and water. We should not become victims of Tamil Nadu’s conspiracy,” he said.
Sandalwood director and actor Prem too participated in the agitation and urged the Kannada film industry personalities to join the agitation for the cause of the Kannadigas.

Setting aside political affiliations, leader of the opposition in the legislative assembly Siddaramaiah participated in the protest in Mysore. Siddaramaiah criticised prime minister Manmohan Singh’s directive to Karnataka, asking the state to release 9,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu daily till October 15.

Siddaramaiah said the prime minister issued the orders without understanding the ground realities on availability of water in the reservoirs and the drought situation in the state.

“The prime minister should have sent an expert committee to assess the situation before issuing the direction,” he said.
The agitation is likely to intensify on Monday with a protest march scheduled to start from Mandya to Raj Bhavan in Bangalore. Hundreds of farmers from Mandya are expected to hit the road and many more will join the march along the route in Maddur, Channapatna, Ramanagaram and Bidadi.