District authorities today deployed Rapid Action Force (RAF) at the Krishna Raja Sagara reservoir in the wake of a threat by a farmers’ body to lay siege to the dam to stop flow of water to Tamil Nadu.
Prohibitory orders have been promulgated in the one-km radius of the KRS reservoir from where besides Kabini dam 9000 cusecs of water is being released since Sunday complying with the Supreme Court order.
Thousands of farmers and activists of various organisations have poured into Mandya, the epic centre of the agitation against release of water to Tamil Nadu, to intensify the protest.
Mandya Deputy Commissioner B.N Krishnaiah ordered closure of schools and colleges across the district today as a precautionary measure, official sources said.
Superintendent of Police Koushalendra Kumar, who is camping at KRS dam, said security has been further beefed up.
Road traffic between Mysore-Bangalore remained disrupted for the fifth consecutive day due to rasta roko by farmers.
The Supreme Court had asked Karnataka to release water as per the September 19 directive of the Cauvery River Authority headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
A large number of farmers headed towards KRS under the leadership of JDS MP N Cheluvarayaswamy and MLAs C.S Puttaraju and M Srinivas. The protesters demanded that they should be allowed to lay siege to the reservoir and stop water release with immediate effect.
Congress MP H Vishwanath led a team and protested near Kabini reservoir along with his colleague Dhruvanarayana, MP from Chamarajnagar and H.S Mahadevaprasad, MLA.
President of the Cauvery Hitarakshana Samithi G Madegowda called for immediate stoppage of water release and said farmers would launch indefinite hunger strike from today.
In Bangalore, BJP legislators took out a march protesting the Centre’s “step motherly treatment” to Karnataka on Cauvery water issue and presented a memorandum to Governor H.R Bhardwaj seeking an amicable settlement to the century old dispute.
Senior BJP leader M Ramachandragowda urged the Prime Minister to direct Karnataka to stop water release. He said due to the agitation, Bangalore might face stoppage of drinking water. Cauvery is the lone source to meet drinking water needs of Bangalore population.
Protests have also been held at Mysore and Chamarajanar.