Cauvery water dispute: Karnataka bandh today, police to deploy 25,000 personnel

Farmer and pro-Karnataka organisations have called for a state-wide bandh in Karnataka on Friday over over a Supreme Court directive to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. 

To prepare for the bandh the government has deployed at least 25,000 police and security personnel, who will patrol the streets of Bengaluru, Mysore and Mandya, among other parts of the state, to maintain law and order during the strike.

The state government will also bring in 10 companies of security personnel from the centre, two from Andhra Pradesh and Kerala to maintain law and order.

The state government has lent tacit support to the strike as chief minister Siddaramaiah announced that schools, colleges and government offices were likely to remain shut on Friday.

All transport services will remain off the streets, either lending support for the strike or avoiding damage to their vehicles. After a meeting with senior police officials in Bengaluru on Thursday, Siddaramaiah said the government will not oppose the action.

“We have no issues with peaceful protests but any act of violence will be punished,” Siddaramaiah told reporters.

Farmer and pro-Karnataka groups called for a strike on Friday after the SC directed Karnataka to release 15,000 cusecs of water per day for the next 10 days to Tamil Nadu.

The Cauvery water dispute between the two states is at least four decades old. However, this time many factors including acute shortage of drinking water, a sixth consecutive year of deficient rainfall, drop in agricultural production and the possibility of a second successive drought year has fueled emotions across the state.

Main opposition parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (Secular) have put their might behind the shutdown strike. Even former external affairs minister of India and former CM of Karnataka SM Krishna of the Congress party has expressed his support.