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Bangalore braces for bandh on Cauvery issue on Thursday

Fakir Chand in Bangalore

With the all-party meeting convened by the Karnataka government on Wednesday failing to arrive at a consensus over the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu as per the distress formula of the Cauvery River Authority, Bangalore, the state capital, is bracing up for a total bandh on Thursday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party -- the main opposition party in the state -- is not backing the bandh to avoid embarrassing Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had decided on the quantum of water (0.8tmcft) to be released at the CRA meeting.

Both the factions of the Janata Dal and various Kannada organisations, though, support the one-day strike.

With the Cauvery riots of 1991, in which Tamils were targeted, still fresh in mind, the police are not taking any chance this time.

They have deployed additional forces around schools, colleges, markets, cinema theatres and private establishments, which will remain closed. Public transport will also be off the roads.

Emerging out of the three-hour all-party meeting, chaired by Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna, senior Janata Dal leaders Siddaramaiah and P G Sindhia said all political parties, barring the Congress and the BJP, were opposed to the release of any amount of water to Tamil Nadu.

"In these distress times when the storage of all the four-reservoirs is just sufficient to save the standing crops and meet the drinking water supply of the people of Cauvery delta region, the Krishna Government's decision to release even 0.8tmcft of water daily to Tamil Nadu is anti-farmer and anti-people. We are totally opposed to it and agree with the stand of the farmers," Sindhia said.

Thousand of farmers have been holding demonstrations in parts of the Cauvery basin to protest Karnataka's decision to release water to Tamil Nadu.

Cauvery Water Dispute: The Complete Coverage

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