Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (MD)
Mangaluru, Sep 4: Union law minister and BJP leader D V Sadananda Gowda on Friday September 4 said that he is committed to the controversial Yettinahole Integrated Drinking Water Project and cannot comment on the problems faced by the state government over this issue.
Addressing reporters during his visit to SDM Law College in the city, where he inaugurated the SDM college Students' Bar Council, Sadananda Gowda said, "When I was the chief minister, I held meetings with the officials of Dakshina Kannada zilla panchayat and planned to undertake this project, and I am still committed to the project. Today my party does not have power in Karnataka state. I am a minister in the central government. I would not like to comment on the problems the state government is facing.
"I am extremely clear that when I was the chief minister of Karnataka, my duty was to see to it that every district, every person gets water. From that point of view, I approved this project. A man can live without food for a month, without newspaper and other things. But no man can survive for two days without drinking water," he said.
Sadananda Gowda's visit was marred by protests against the Yettinahole project. The protestors outside the SDM college showed black flags to oppose the project and to express anger against Sadananda Gowda. Dinesh Holla, convener of Sahyadri Samrakshana Sanchaya, Punik, Shashidhar Shetty, Harish, George and others who were waving black flags were detained by the Barke police and later released.
National Litigation Policy
On reducing the number of pending cases in various courts in India, Sadananda Gowda said, "The National Litigation Policy is ready and inter-ministerial meeting has been conducted in the presence of all the ministerial secretaries. I am moving the proposal to the Prime Minister to place it before the cabinet. I hope that within a month we will have the National Litigation Policy."
"With this policy, it prevents cases between departments and cases between public sector undertakings and departments from going to court. In other words, this policy aims at solving cases within the departments rather than going to the court. The government is the major litigant. In many cases, thegovernment is either a party or a respondent or in certain cases, the petitioner. For out-of-court settlement of cases that are already in court, we have created certain parameters. We have presented up to four bills and also planned to repeal more than 1,300 old laws from the statute books," he added.