Cauvery Row: CM holds series of meetings to discuss outbreak of violence
BANGALURU : Reflecting the economic impact of the violent Cauvery protests in Karnataka’s Bengaluru, many companies based in the city known as India’s Silicon Valley put their operations on hold or advised employees to work from home on Tuesday, having had to close early on Monday.
Companies like Amazon and Flipkart said their operations had been affected by the protests in the IT hub against a Supreme Court order on the sharing of river Cauvery waters with Tamil Nadu.
“Owing to the situation in Bangalore currently, the delivery of products is temporarily impacted. We will resume all deliveries at the earliest,” said Amazon, the world’s top online retailer.
Flipkart also said it was stalling operations today as the safety of delivery staff is its priority. “As we hope the situation to get better soon, we are trying to mitigate all customer impact by keeping them informed about expected delays,” said Neeraj Aggarwal, a senior Flipkart executive. Indian software giants Infosys and Wipro were among the big employers to stay shut on Tuesday. Some firms were closed for Eid.
On Monday, many offices were forced to shut down early, as were schools and colleges, when protesters vandalized shops and burnt Tamil Nadu registered buses and trucks. Accounting giant Ernst & Young asked its workers to leave early and avoid travelling in vehicles with Tamil Nadu plates in Karnataka.
“The impact is that people are scared and not spending too much time at work. Productivity has been hit badly, we haven’t been able to work for the last several days,” said Harshit Mathur of online payment company Razorpay.
Two persons have been killed in the protests described by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “distressful”.Besides major IT companies including Infosys and Mphasis, Bengaluru is home to start-ups like Ola besides Flipkart. Multinationals like Samsung Electronics and Oracle also have offices there.
Industry body Assocham said in a press release that Karnataka, especially Bengaluru, is estimated to have suffered losses worth Rs. 22,000 to 25,000 crore. “The losses will be mammoth but we can’t quantify,” an official of recruitment company TeamLease told to a News Channel.
Businesses in Bengaluru have faced four days of disruption this month because of protests linked to the water dispute and an unrelated trade union strike on September 2.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today held a series of meetings in Bengaluru to discuss the outbreak of violence. Cauvery issue related arson and stone pelting incidents took place yesterday, after the outcome of Supreme Court order asking the state to release 12,000 cusecs of Cauvery water everyday till 20th of this month to Tamilnadu.
Chief Minister met senior Congress leaders Mallikarjuna Kharge, Veerappa Moily, K H Muniyappa in the morning. The Cabinet also met to discuss the situation and future course of action. In a series of tweets, Chief Minister has assured the people that his Government will do everything to safeguard the interest of the state and appealed to people not to indulge in violence.
The Government has announced a compensation of 10 lakh rupees to next of kin of person killed in police firing yesterday. Mr Siddaramaiah said that the state would abide by the Supreme Court direction to release 12,000 cusecs of water daily from the river cauvery to Tamil Nadu until September 20. Talking to newsmen after an emergency cabinet meeting in Begaluru, he said that he has full confidence in Judiciary.
Stating that even though the interim order of the Apex Court was most ”difficult and impractical” to implement in view of the current storage situation in the four Cauvery basin reservoirs, he said, the government would discharge its constitutional obligation.
He said that the state had to take this decision in the view of the State’s main petition coming up before the Supreme Court on October 28th challenging the final award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal declared in February 2007. Mr Siddaramaiah said he had sought an appointment to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is likely to meet him tomorrow and seek his intervention to resolve the current impasse. Siddaramaiah will also request the Prime Minister to convene a meeting of Chief Ministers of the Cauvery basin states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry and find out an amicable solution.
Speaking to media, the Home Minister Dr. Parameshwara said that during the violence 78 vehicles were burn to ashes, of which 19 vehicle were burnt outside Bengaluru. So far 365 anti-social elements were arrested. Today there has been no major untoward incident, he said.
