Bengaluru: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President DK Shivakumar kickstarted 'Walk for Water', a 10-day 100-km padayatra from Mekedatu to Bengaluru on Sunday, despite warnings of stern action against the party for violating covid-19 restrictions.

Former chief minister and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddarmaiah, Congress leader in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress MLAs MB Patil, UT Khader, RV Deshpande and MB Patil, others were present. 

According to Congress, the additional reservoir in Mekedatu will help Karnataka source an additional 50 TMC of water and 400 MW of electricity. Mekedatu is a location along Kaveri in the border of Chamarajanagar and Ramanagara Districts.

Home Minister Araga Jnanendra dubbed the 'Mekedatu padayatra' as a political gimmick keeping in my mind the upcoming assembly elections. 

"Congress never cared about the Mekedatu Project when they were in power. Keeping elections and image building in mind they are doing this padayatra. This is a political gimmick. Everyone in the state is watching their political game." 

Congress dared to go ahead with the Mekedatu padayatra (march) amid surging COVID-19 cases in the state. The government has imposed a weekend curfew in the state for the next two weeks. The weekend curfew is in effect from Friday 10:00 pm to Monday 5:00 is for the next two weeks.

Speaking to reporters here on Thursday, Mr Shivakumar said that the state government is blatantly violating the Covid norms, but it imposes restrictions to common men and opposition parties to conduct programs.