Mandya farmers ask Cauvery basin districts to be made part of Tamil Nadu
- Farmers from Mandya and neighbouring districts in Karnataka have a unique request from the government
- They want the districts in the Cauvery basin to be made part of Tamil Nadu
- The farmers alleged that since Karnataka has to release more water to Tamil Nadu and their own farms are drying up, they want to be a part of Tamil Nadu instead
FollowFarmers from Mandya and neighbouring districts in Karnataka have made a desperate plea to the state government: to make the districts of the Cauvery basin part of Tamil Nadu.
The farmers say that they have been suffering from what they call the worst drought in years, and are upset over the fact that Karnataka is forced to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.
Demanding freedom from the apathy of state government, the Mandya district unit of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha will submit a petition to chief minister Siddaramaiah on August 15, which will be observed as a black day in Mandya with a massive black flag protest, reports the Times of India.
Because of the Cauvery water dispute and diverting water to Bengaluru, the government had not released a single drop from the KRS dam to these districts since November last year.
Farmers say that they did not demand water since the water in the KRS dam was at a low 4,000 cusecs. But with the inflow having crossed 10,000 cusecs in the past two days and the dam level touching 90ft, there was no reason for the government to withhold water, they said.
Karnataka granted Tamil Nadu 419 tmc ft of the total 740 tmc ft water in the Cauvery basin, while Karnataka gets 270 tmc ft. "I think the only entity our government is scared of is the Supreme Court. So, if Tamil Nadu gets water, we want to be part of that state," said K S Sudheer Kumar, the Mandya district president of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha to the Times of India.
A few months back farmer unions burned effigies of politicians and protested the release of water to Tamil Nadu.
