Mandya: Seven police personnel including a deputy superintendent were injured in stone-throwing as a 1,000-strong mob resorted to violence and damaged the city railway station in support of the Cauvery agitation on September 7, police said.

Police resorted to lathi-charge and bursting of teargas shells to quell the mob.

The mob, taking advantage of the bandh call given by District Farmers' Welfare Committee, to protest against the release of 1.25 TMC feet of water to Tamil Nadu as per the Supreme Court direction, ransacked ticket counters and damaged the waiting rooms and also computer terminals in the station, police said.

The mob also broke the window panes of the Tipu Express train which goes to Mysore and detained it for a while, police said, adding, the agitators piled up tyres and made a bonfire of it on the platform. Police resorted to lathicharge to bring the situation under control.

Meanwhile, normal life in the city and parts of the district came to a grinding halt with public transport being off the roads and business establishments downing their shutters, in support of the bandh call.

While government offices and educational institutions remained closed, medical services were available.

Agitators took out processions, shouting slogans against the state and the Central governments. Effigies of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa were also burnt, police said.

While two towns in the district including Mandya observed the bandh, Nagamangala, Srirangapatna, Pandavpura and K R Pet towns remained unaffected.

The situation is under control now, police said.

Meanwhile, Congress leaders of Mandya district, including Ambarish, MP, urged Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to convene a meeting of the Cauvery River Authority to defuse the situation in Karnataka.

If the CRA meeting is not held soon, the situation in the state may take a "violent turn", the leaders warned.

"It is the bounden duty of the Prime Minister to safeguard the interest of Karnataka which is very much a part of the country," Ambarish said. As per the directives of the Supreme Court, if the state releases 1.25 TMC of water every day, by mid September, "We will be left with about 20 TMC of water which is just about enough for drinking purposes till next year," he said.

He appealed to the Prime Minister to convene the CRA meeting soon in view of the gravity of the situation.

PTI