Water war leads to K'taka bandh

Bangalore: It's been a week of unrest in Karnataka. Since the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal's verdict on February 5 on water sharing of the river, the state has witnessed protests from all sections of the society.

Now Karnataka is witnessing a complete shutdown on Monday following a state-wide bandh call to protest the Tribunal's verdict.

Police in Bangalore has detained hundred pro-Kannada activists protesting outside Raj Bhavan.

On Monday morning, more than 50 Kannada Rakshna Vedike activists were arrested from the city railway station after they tried to stop trains from going towards Mysore.

Prohibitory orders are in place in Bangalore in view of the dawn to dusk bandh with Section 144, which was imposed in the city at midnight, and will continue for the next 24 hours.

The state had been witnessing protests in Mandya, Mysore, Chamarajanagar and Bangalore districts following the verdict of the Tribunal. From goats named after MP's to women carrying empty pots, the Kannada Rakshana Vedike Samiti has been in the forefront of these demonstrations.

The result – traffic jams, a hit to all kinds of public transport and a heightened sense of tension in the state. The sensitivity of the issue also led to a blackout of Tamil channels and blacklisting of Tamil cinema in the state.

Although, the bandh is not state-sponsored, the shutdown seems to have the support of the coalition government.

The bandh scheduled for February 8 was earlier called off in view of the Aero India-2007 exposition, which ended on Sunday, at the request of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.

The state government has declared a holiday for all educational institutions and banks with most IT firms deciding to extend the weekend holiday to Monday. Trains and flights might be also be held up.

State-run buses are likely to ply but may be withdrawn if the situation worsens. Emergency medical services will, however, continue to function.

The Bangalore-Mysore Expressway is expected to be the epicenter of the shutdown. South Karnataka, particularly the Cauvery basin districts of Hassan, Mandya, Mysore and other Tamil-majority areas in Bangalore are on high alert.

More than 20,000 policemen have been deployed in Bangalore itself. Additional forces have been called in from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, the CRPF, CISF and the RAF to ensure law and order throughout the shutdown.

Ten flights have been cancelled:

Air Sahara-Delhi-Bangalore

Air Sahara-Bangalore-Chennai

Air Sahara-Bangalore-Delhi

Air Sahara-Chennai-Bangalore

Jet Airways-Bangalore-Hyderabad

Jet Airways-Bangalore-Mumbai

Jet Airways-Bangalore-Coimbatore

Indian Airlines-Bangalore-Pune

Indian Airlines-Bangalore-Mumbai

Indian Airlines-Bangalore-Chennai

State	Asked for	Assessor's gave	Finally given
TN	562 tmc ft	395 tmc ft	395 tmc ft
Karnataka	465tmc ft	250 tmc ft	270 tmc ft
Kerala	100 tmc ft	33.4 tmc ft	30 tmc ft
Puducherry	9.3 tmc ft	7tmc ft	7tmc ft