With the Cauvery issue raging, the inter-state movement between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka has come to a grinding halt throwing normal life in border districts out of gear.

With pro-Kannada groups vehemently opposing Cauvery water release to Tamil Nadu and marching towards the border areas, Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation has suspended all its services from Salem, Erode, Krishnagiri and Ooty in the western belt to the neighbouring state.

Hundreds of labourers who commute across the borders are left stranded. But surprisingly, the Karnataka buses are plying between the two states without any incident. Tourists like Kovai-based S. Kanagasundaram, former president of Licenced Building Surveyors’ Association, who is on a tour to Coorg, have been put to hardship as police have been advising them against travelling to Karnataka.

“Though vigil has been stepped up, our counterparts across the border have advised us not to venture into Karnataka since the vehicles with TN registration are being targeted,” says a senior police officer in the western zone. Sporadic incidents of stone pelting in the last two days had broken the windowpanes of a few Salem-based vehicles in Bengaluru.

Karnataka-bound passengers are forced to cross over the border on foot after reaching the TN boundary in buses. From there, they board buses operated by the KSRTC to reach their destinations. Lorry movement has been completely paralysed. Trucks are stranded across the borders.

While truck drivers from the other side wanted to be let into TN, lorries carrying vegetables and milk from here are stopped at Bannari and Hasanur check posts on TN border.

Shettar’s CRA walkout turned TN’s advantage

Did Karnataka chief minister Jagadish Shettar commit a strategic mistake by staging a ‘heroic’ walkout from the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) meeting on September 19?

Sources claimed the legal team of the Karnataka government feels so though it helped improve the image of the BJP government among people at least for a few days. The CM’s walkout and his initial decision not to abide by the CRA order to release 9,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu, were hailed all across the state.

But the shock came when the Supreme Court said the state had no option but abide by the CRA order forcing Mr Shettar to start releasing the stipulated quantity of water to TN. This has led to widespread protests across the Cauvery basin districts.

The sources said it was a political decision to defy the CRA order that attracted the Supreme Court’s ire. At a time when Opposition parties are criticising the ‘inefficiency’ of the state’s legal team, insiders in the government assert that political interests often dominated over legal aspects of the water dispute to the detriment of the state.

“If we had complied with the CRA order and then moved the Supreme Court before Tamil Nadu did, it would have made a lot of difference and we could have hoped for some respite from the SC,” say highly placed sources in the government. Even independent experts feel the same.

Says Uday Holla, former advocate general, “I do not know what happened at the CRA meeting. But Karnataka should not have walked out. It was the apex court that directed the CRA to hold a meeting and discuss the water sharing issue. After walking out of the CRA meeting, how can you face the Supreme Court? I guess sometimes, they take political decisions which are inimical to the legal battle.”

After being caught on the wrong foot, the state filed a review petition before the CRA, which further delayed the process of seeking a legal remedy. Fearing contempt of court, the state had no option but to fall in line and release water.