M A I N   N E W S

Cauvery's flow to TN suspended
Sesha Chandra

Bangalore, September 19
In the backdrop of mounting Cauvery agitation, in the southern districts of the state following drowning of a panchayat member in Kapila river on Wednesday, the ruling Congress government in the state, today decided to suspend the release of Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu.

The emergency meeting of the state Cabinet, here this morning, officially announced the stoppage of release of water from Kabini and KRS reservoirs. State Information Minister, Kagodu Thimmappa briefing newspersons on the cabinet decisions, said that the state government was deeply concerned over the widespread agitation by farmers in the Cauvery basin over the release of 9000 cusecs of water everyday as per the decision of the Cauvery River Authority.

The Cabinet also decided to convene a special session of both Houses of legislature to discuss the next Cauvery issue. A demand was made by the Opposition parties for such a session to protect the interest of the state farmers who are facing acute shortage of water as a result of the monsoon failing for the second year in succession.

Judicial Probe: The government has decided to order a judicial probe into Wednesday’s incident at Beechanahalli. Five farmers jumped into Kabini reservoir to protest release of water to Tamil Nadu. Four of these agitators were immediately rescued while the gram panchayat member, K.Guruswamy drowned. The body of victim was found 2 km down stream late after midnight. The state Cabinet sanctioned an ex gratia of Rs 1 lakh to kin of Guruswamy.

Meanwhile, the state government wants to hold wide consultations before filing the government affidavit, to the apex court on the plea by Tamil Nadu which is slated to come up on Monday. The all party meeting is slated for Saturday, when irrigation experts, hydrologists, legal luminaries and representatives of the farmers associations will be consulted in New Delhi before signing the dotted line.

The century-old vexed problem will come up for another bout of hearing on Monday.