Bangalore: Opposition to release of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu intensified in Karnataka yesterday with five Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) lawmakers, four legislators and one Lok Sabha member planning to quit in protest. The four state legislators and the Lok Sabha member submitted their resignations to state JD-S president H D Kumaraswamy, who said the party would decide todaywhether to accept them.
Kumaraswamy told reporters in Bangalore that Tuesday’s meet would also consider whether all its 26 assembly members should quit protesting water release to Tamil Nadu. All the five lawmakers who offered to quit are from Mandya district, 80km from Bangalore and the hot-bed of the Cauvery water agitation.
The five who have offered to quit are Lok Sabha member N Cheluvarayaswamy and four Karnataka assembly members, Kalpana Siddaraju, C.S. Puttaraju, M Srinivas and A B R Bandisidddegowda. The JD-S, headed by former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, has a strong base in Mandya and Cauvery basin districts of neighbouring Mysore and Chamarajanagar.
The JD-S has 26 members in the 225-member assembly. It has three Lok Sabha members from the state: Deve Gowda, his son Kumaraswamy and Cheluvarayaswamy.
The JD-S clearly does not want erosion in its support by merely issuing statements against water release as farmers in the Cauvery basin districts, particularly Mandya, have been holding demonstrations daily since September 19. On that day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - as head of the Cauvery River Authority - directed Karnataka to release 9,000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu from September 20 to October 15. Farmers and Kananda activists have been blocking the road between Bangalore and Mandya and Mysore, affecting traffic.IANS
