Mandya turns fortress as Supreme Court begins Cauvery hearing from today

The Mandya district police are keeping a tight vigil in the town as the Cauvery river dispute is coming up for hearing before the Apex Court from Tuesday. At least ten platoons of district reserve police have been deployed to ensure law and order in the district. Besides, two platoons of Karnataka State Reserve Police and 750 police are manning various locations in the district. Also, security has been upgraded at the Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) reservoir.

Police personnel in Malvalli, Pandavapura and other areas had reportedly conducted a meeting of farmers leaders and others requesting them not to disturb peace.

The Supreme Court will hear pleas submitted by riparian states challenging the Cauvery River Disputes Tribunal on February 5, 2007.  A three judge bench will hear the plea with Justices Deepak Mishra, Amitav Roy and AM Khanvilkar. The Cauvery river is shared by four states - Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.

The hearing is expected everyday from July 11 and this could take the two-centuries-old dispute to a logical end, reports Kannada Prabha. The first spark of cauvery river dispute was felt during 1807 and since then the Mysore kingdom had taken efforts to revive rivers in the cauvery basin. But this had not gone down well with Madras region and it had raised objection to it. Since then, both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are at logger heads in sharing Cauvery water.

• Cauvery dispute