A walkathon by the Congress for a much-awaited drinking water project has run into controversy, with hundreds of party workers throwing Covid-19 caution to the wind and Karnataka High Court pulling up the government for allowing the event in violation of the pandemic guidelines.

Leader of the Opposition P.C. Siddaramiah and state Congress president D.K. Shivakumar set off on foot from Ramanagara district along with hundreds of party workers on Sunday for the 100km “padayatra”, demanding the implementation of the Mekedatu reservoir project that had been in the pipeline for several years.

Karnataka High Court on Wednesday directed the state government to inform on Friday why no action was taken to stop the walkathon. The court was hearing a PIL filed by Nagendra Prasad A.V who sought a direction to the government to stop all such gatherings in view of the pandemic.

The court also directed the Congress to inform whether it had the required permissions to conduct the 10-day march and if the party was taking appropriate safety measures in view of the pandemic.

The government counsel informed the court that the state government had already banned all public gatherings on January 4 and the Ramanagara district divisional commissioner had issued a notice to the Congress citing lack of permission for the walkathon.

Although the third wave of Covid-19 has hit the state with daily cases rocketing to around 15,000, the state government is clueless on how to stop the march that entered the fourth day on Wednesday. Scheduled to conclude on January 19 with a rally in the city, the march that was kicked off ignoring the weekend lockdown in the state has put the government on the defensive.

More than 100 participants, including Siddaramiah and Shivakumar, have already been booked under the Karnataka Disaster Management Act in three different cases filed against the event.

Home minister Araga Jnanendra on Wednesday said hundreds of marchers were Covid positive and urged the Congress to stop the walkathon. “According to my information, hundreds of participants are Covid positive. Some leaders have already tested positive and are under treatment,” he said, alluding to senior leaders H.M. Revanna and C.M. Ibrahim testing positive during the march.

“The Congress leaders are only bothered about taking political advantage and not about public health,” the home minister said.

The state government had on Tuesday extended the weekend and night curfew until end of January in the light of the unabated spike in Covid-19 cases.

Siddaramiah remained defiant and said there was no going back on their 10-day march and dared the government to stop them. “Let them try and stop us, we will face it,” he told reporters while marching on Wednesday.

He rejected the government’s call to stop the protest in view of the third wave of the pandemic and informed he was in good health. “I skipped walking on Monday as I had fever. I have walked on all the other days as I am used to this. I walk for an hour every morning,” he said.

Shivakumar had refused to take a swab test on Monday and instead reprimanded the health official who approached him to do so.

The health official later tested positive for the virus.

Announced in 2013 by the then Congress government headed by Siddaramiah, the Mekedatu project is designed to provide 4.75 thousand million cubic feet (tmcf) of drinking water to Bangalore and its surrounding areas and generate 400MW of hydroelectric power.