Children walk 500 km against CWDT final award

Bangalore, Apr 26: The ongoing feud between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu on sharing of the cauvery waters did not spare school children also with five youngsters trekking 500 km from Talacauvery, the birth place of the river, to the city in protest against the final award.

The children, who wanted to utilise their summer vacation usefully thought it proper to draw the attention of the Union Government over injustice meted out to the State on Cauvery water sharing issue. They started their walk on April 9 with Karnataka Raitha Sangha President K S Puttannaiah flagging them off, reached the city on April 24, covering an average of 35 km a day.

K Niranjan Rao Kadam, who is also a International Kite Flyer, narrating the venture said that there was problem in the beginning as Police failed to provide protection at Kushalnagar and asked them to return home. "We did not yield, but continued with our venture and there were overwhelming reception in the Cauvery basin districts of Mysore and Mandya where agitation are still continuing" he added He said that a memorandum was submitted to the Governor T N Chaturvedi today.

Replying to a question, he said that "the Union government should intervene and pave way for solving the water sharing issue through dialogue." The other children of the team included Yeshwant Rao Sindhe, Vinodrao Vasane, Vinaya Kumar, V Nagendra.

UNI