As the Cauvery issue intensified yet again, over 600 farmers were arrested in the Rail Roko protests in Chennai, Madurai and Thanjavur districts in Tamil Nadu on Monday.
DMK leader MK Stalin also courted arrest along with other MLAs for staging the Rail Roko protests. According to reports by CNN News18, they were later released.
Earlier, opposition parties in Tamil Nadu, including the DMK, joined a statewide rail blockade protest announced by a farmers’ federation over the Cauvery issue, urging the Centre to set up the Cauvery Management Board (CMB).
DMK Treasurer and Opposition Leader in the Tamil Nadu Assembly MK Stalin was among those who participated in the protests held in different parts of the state, including Chennai and the Cauvery delta districts.
Stalin led a protest march at Perambur even as scores of political workers belonging to DMK, the Left parties and MDMK, among others, staged a Rail Roko at Thanjavur and Cuddalore, and were detained.
A farmers' federation had called for the two-day rail blockade starting on Monday, urging the Centre to immediately constitute the CMB.
The protests come days after a high-level technical team, set up by the Supreme Court, completed its inspection of the Cauvery basin region in Tamil Nadu to assess the situation in the state.
The team, which also inspected the Cauvery basin in Karnataka, is set to submit its report in the apex court on Monday.
The apex court had set up the team while hearing a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu government seeking release of Cauvery water by Karnataka.
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