Cauvery stir continues; JDS, Congress MLAs offer to quit

Road and Rail traffic remained hit

between Bangalore and Mysore for the second day today as

protests over release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu escalated

in the river basin districts raising the political heat with

some JDS and Congress MLAs offering to quit assembly. As the farmers organisations stepped up protest,

authorities deployed RAF in Mandya, the epicentre of the

agitations, as a precautionary step. More than 100 protesters were taken into custody when they

detained the Mysore-Shiradi express at Gejjalagere near

Mandya. An attempt by a farmer to hang himself from a tree was

foiled in the village, police said. Protests were reported in Mysore, Chamarajangar and various

parts of Mandya districts following which the South Western

Railway cancelled Mysore-Malgudi Express and Chamundi Express. Farmers, political leaders and activists of pro-Kannada

outfits intensified their protest and slammed BJP Government

for "neglecting" the state's interests, a charge denied by

Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar. Four JDS MLAs and an MP from Mandya district, the hotbed of

Cauvery politics, handed over their resignations to state unit

chief H D Kumaraswamy. They were Mandya JDS Lok Sabha MP N

Cheluvarayaswamy and his party MLAs Kalapna Siddaraju, C S

Puttaraju , M Srinivas and Ramesh Bandi Siddegowda. Not to be left behind, two Congress MLAs from the same

district K B Chandrasekhar and Suresh Gowda announced their

decision to resign their membership from the assembly, which

is set to go to polls in May next year.Kumaraswamy said a meeting would be held tomorrow to discuss whether all 26 JDS MLAs and three MPs, including his

father Deve Gowda, should quit enmasse over Cauvery issue. Gowda met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi, apprised

him of the difficult situation faced by Karnataka and

requested him to reconsider the directive of Cauvery River

Authority headed by him asking the state to release 9,000

cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu till October 15. The Cauvery water release issue hotted up with opposition

Congress and JDS attacking the state government for its

"failure" to convince the Centre about the distress situation. Shettar hit back at them saying "the opposition including

Congress have failed to convince the Prime Minister". He asserted that "because of wrong decision taken by the

Prime Minister, injustice has been done to Karnataka. We did

our best to convince the Prime Minister". The government began releasing water from Krishna Raja

Sagar and Kabini dams early yesterday to ensure flow of 9,000

cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu, complying with a directive of

the Supreme Court.