The heat of the Cauvery agitation will not spare Bangaloreans as hundreds of farmers managed to stop pumping of 300 million litres of water to the city at Torekadanagahalli water pumping station on Tuesday. The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board gets 900 million litres of water from the station.
The farmers and activists in Mandya, Mysore and Chamarajanagar were enraged over the people of Bangalore not participating in the Cauvery agitation after PM Manmohan Singh and the Supreme Court directed the release of 9,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu till October 20.
Cauvery River Protection Committee leader and former MLC Madhu Made Gowda led hundreds of farmers in Mandya district to the pumping station. Made Gowda, former legislators Malajamma and Anadhani asked the officials to stop water supply to Bangalore.
Amid slogan-shouting by the huge crowd, Made Gowda said they wanted to stop the water to Bangalore as “they should also know what would happen if water release to TN emptied the reservoirs”.
BWSSB Executive Engineer Nandakumar held talks with higher officials, and decided to stop pumping of water. Sources, however, said supply resumed hours after the protestors left the pumping station.
Anadhani also accused Bangaloreans of not participating in the agitation. “This attitude forced us to support Madhu Made Gowda’s move to stop water to Bangalore,” he said.
Meanwhile, 30 members of Kabini Kavalu Pade got onto five coracles from Kempegowdana hundi and moved along the river for three hours and reached Kabini dam to submit a memorandum to Tahsildar Shivakumar Swamy.
Claiming that about 25 tmc ft of water had flown to TN, they said further release of water would deprive Mysore and Bangalore of drinking water. They were arrested and later released on bail.
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