Bangalore : Protests against the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu took a new turn on Wednesday with farmers trying to make an entry into the heavily guarded KRS reservoir. Their fivehour effort didn’t yield results.

They tried to break the security cordon to enter the dam site and stop outflow of water. With the Karnataka government refusing to accede to their demand to stop the outflow, the scene will shift back to Mandya.

Now, the farmers are planning to launch a hunger strike on Thursday. Their other plans are laying siege to Raj Bhavan on Thursday and cutting off water supply to Bangalore.

The outflow from the Kabini dam has been reduced to 3,000 cusecs from 5,000 cusecs. Mysore deputy commissioner PS Vastrad told TOI the release was reduced on Wednesday afternoon considering the dam’s storage level.

In four days, the storage level at the dam has fallen from 3.775 tmcft to 2.515 tmcft as on Wednesday, sources said. Kabini’s storage on Wednesday was 2,271.30 feet (maximum 2,284 feet), while that in the KRS dam was 109.05 feet (maximum 124.8 feet).

A central team will visit Tamil Nadu and Karnataka on Thursday and Friday to assess the situation.

The Cauvery Monitoring Committee , headed by the Union water resources secretary Dhruv Vijay Singh, is meeting on October 8 to review Karnataka’s compliance with the Cauvery River Authority’s (CRA) order to release 9,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu daily.

On Thursday, Karnataka is filing its reply before the Supreme Court to Tamil Nadu’s application on which water was released.

The experts’ arrival to assess the ground realities will give Karnataka an opportunity to appeal to the farmers to maintain peace. The team’s observations and recommendations will be discussed at the next meeting of the CRA, a date for which is yet to be fixed.

Chief minister Jagadish Shettar urged the farmers to maintain peace and said the state would shortly file a review petition before the Supreme Court for a review of the CRA directive . But farmers’ leader G Made Gowda accused Shettar of betraying farmers. Representatives of farmers met Shettar in Bangalore and urged him to stop the outflow of water.

At the KRS dam, police personnel and elected representatives were the target of angry farmers. At least six persons were injured in the violence . Congress MPs H Vishwanath and R Dhruvanarayan and JD(S) MP N Cheluvarayaswamy participated in the protests near the Kabini and KRS dams.

The state government has rushed ADGP (law and order) Bipin Gopalkrishna to the region. About 3,000 security personnel are guarding the KRS dam.

The agitation received support from the Bangalore Advcoates’ Association . Its members staged a protest in Bangalore. Actor Shivrajkumar said the film industry will extend support to the agitation and Saturday’s bandh.-Times of India