Mandya: At least 15 people were taken into custody for blocking roads at several places in this Cauvery heartland district protesting release of water to Tamil Nadu even as police stepped up security.
Fifteen people have been taken into custody for `rasta roko`, police said.
Cauvery Hitarakshana Samithi, an outfit of farmers spearheading the stir, has given a call for Mandya district bandh tomorrow.
The Mandya district administration has declared schools and colleges holiday for two days from today.
Samithi President G Madegowda urged the Opposition Congress leader in the state Assembly Siddaramaiah to lead an agitation against the BJP government. In another development, former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa demanded that Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar suspend the ongoing winter session of the Assembly in Belgaum and lead a delegation of all ministers and legislators and meet the Prime Minister on the water row.
He told reporters at Belgaum that he was ready to launch an agitation to protect the interest of farmers in the Cauvery basin.
Protests were also witnessed at Chamarajanagar, another Cauvery basin district. Karnataka commenced release of 10,000 cusecs of water from last night to Tamil Nadu as per the Supreme Court directive.
In an interim order on Wednesday, the apex court had directed Karnataka to release 10,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu, and asked the Cauvery Monitoring Committee to hold its meeting to decide the amount of water required by the states.
PTI