Farmers to CM: Meet PM, get water

Bengaluru: The farmers' organisation leading the agitation over Karnataka's decades' old row with Goa over sharing of the Mahadayi river water, has given the state government time until the end of January  to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi and persuade him to call a meeting to sort out the issue amicably.

Speaking to reporters here, Mr Veeresh Sobaradmutt, president of the Mahadayi Horata Samanvaya Samithi, said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah must take the lead in convening  a meeting with his Goa and Maharashtra counterparts as early as possible to arrive at a consensus in the interest of farmers of North Karnataka.

"He must also take the initiative to fix an appointment with Mr Modi and take  his ministers, opposition party leaders and representatives of the samithi to meet him and explain the need to resolve this issue with some urgency," he added, warning, "If the issue is not resolved  by the end of  January we will hold a peaceful demonstration before the CM's house. Should the Union government not respond positively, the CM and all his Cabinet ministers must join hands with us to stage a demonstration."

Deploring that while the farmers had been agitating for over 900 days, the parties were busy settling their political scores,  Mr Sobaradmutt said it was high time they set aside their  differences, and  took a united stand on the issue.

Earlier, the samithi members  submitted a memorandum to a senior officer at Raj Bhavan, listing their demands before marching  to the office of the Election Commission, where they handed over a letter demanding that the Assembly polls be put on hold  till the Mahadayi dispute was settled.  They also submitted a memorandum to Mr Tushar Girinath, principal secretary to the CM detailing their stand.

‘Cornered’ BJP fights back, Shobha held, Ashok injured
BJP leaders who are receiving brickbats and not bouquets they had expected from farmers on the Mahadayi dispute, held a protest before the KPCC office on Queen's road in Bengaluru on Wednesday, accusing the ruling Congress of instigating them to agitate against the saffron party. 

While the police stopped the protestors from nearing the office, the BJP leaders and workers tried to scale the barricades they had erected. Bengaluru city BJP leader, R.Ashok , who joined the protest late, received a minor head injury in the scuffle with the police. The BJP leaders were arrested and later released. 

In a counter protest, members of the National Student Union of India (NSUI), held a dharna against the BJP over its role in the Mahadayi river water dispute, giving the police a hard time  as it tried to stop the rival groups from confronting each other. 

Member of Parliament, Shobha Karandalaje, who led the BJP protest, hit out at the Congress opposition in Goa for opposing their government's  talks with Karnataka on the river dispute and claimed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was not interested in resolving it.

"He is instead blaming  BJP, which has convinced Goa Chief Minister to come to an amicable settlement on the  Mahadayi issue. It is now his duty to provide drinking water to the people of North Karnataka," she asserted, adding, "Why should Congress leaders including KPCC working president, Dinesh Gundu Rao and Water Resources Minister, M.B. Patil  come to the BJP office to meet the farmers?  This only shows that the entire protest has been engineered by the Congress, which is upto dirty tricks."