PMK plea to deploy Army near reservoirs in Karnataka

Chennai, Oct 9: Even as the

government slammed

for "unilaterally" stopping the daily release of

water and decided to approach the

in this regard, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) today urged the Centre to deploy the Army near reservoirs in Karnataka.

On Oct 8, Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar said that it was not possible to release more water to Tamil Nadu. Today the PMK chief S Ramadoss stressed that the Centre must deploy the Army to force Karnataka to release the water as per the directive of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA).

On Sept 19, the CRA had asked Karnataka to release 9000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water every day to Tamil Nadu from Sept 20 to Oct 15. Since Karnataka did not heed this, the Supreme Court ordered the state on Sept 28 to release 9000 cusecs daily.

Now that the water release has been stopped from yesterday, the PMK chief S Ramadoss demanded the Army's deployment and also pleaded for the Centre to take over all the reservoirs which have been built over the Cauvery in Karnataka.

According to Ramadoss, Karnataka's decision to stop the water release is "a threat to the country's integrity". He alleged that Karnataka is "instigating people to protest against Tamil Nadu".

Political parties and farmers' organisations in the two states have been agitating over the Cauvery issue for some time. CPI activists today tried to stage a 'rail roko' in TN's Thanjavur district but police took nearly 500 of them into preventive custody.

Meanwhile, farmers in Karnataka continued to seek a review of the CRA's directive.

OneIndia News