Cauvery dispute: Yeddyurappa sits in dharna

Bangalore: Former Chief Minister and estranged BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa on Friday launched a frontal attack on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for issuing to Karnataka an order as Chairman of Cauvery River Authority (CRA) to release 9,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu daily "without assessment of ground reality" on water storage levels in this state.

Yeddyurappa, who began a day-long dharna in protest against the CRA order, demanded that the Prime Minister withdraw the diktat without "delaying even for a moment". He stressed that the Prime Minister should have first sent a central team to the state to study the ground realities before issuing the order.

Yeddyurappa termed the CRA order "unpardonable crime" and "blow" to the state and said it has hurt the harmonious relations between Kannadigas and Tamils. The Prime Minister passed the order for the sole reason of "getting cooperation" from Tamil Nadu. Yeddyurappa said Singh should get the report of the central team currently touring the Cauvery basin districts today itself, and withdraw the order by this evening to "avert tomorrow's Karnataka bandh".

In this age, it s easy to find the storage levels in reservoirs and get all the data sitting in Delhi, he pointed out. "I have decided to stay put here itself (dharna spot) tonight". He said tomorrow s Karnataka bandh (called by Kannada organisations in protest against release of water to Tamil Nadu) is not aimed at promoting the interest of any political parties; it's to protect the interests of the State, farmers in Cauvery basin and drinking water needs of Bangalore.

"I don't know what form tomorrow's bandh will take. If there are law and order problems, the Prime Minister and the Centre will be responsible", he said, and demanded that four Central Ministers from the State SM Krishna, M Mallikarjuna Kharge, M Veerappa Moily and KH Muniyappa take a clear stand and convince the Prime Minister to withdraw the order quickly. He said Karnataka is facing severe drought and rains have now stopped in the state, while it has commenced in Tamil Nadu.