Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Jun 22: Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member, Oscar Fernandes, said that he will soon arrange for meeting between the chief minister and anti-Yettinahole activists, experts, and others, in view of various problems the coastal district will face if Yettinahole project is implemented.
He was speaking after participating in 'Netravati Bachao - interaction programme with people's representatives from the district' organized by Netravati Rakshana Samyukta Samiti at Sahodaya Hall in the city on Tuesday June 21. He told the concerned that after fixing the date for the meeting, the concerned would be given advance intimation of 15 days.
"Along with the chief minister, officials of concerned departments, anti-project activists, and experts, will be present at the meeting. Towards clearing doubts on the project, during the meeting with the chief minister at Bengaluru, dates had been fixed for such a meeting twice, but both had to be postponed on account of elections. Now, minister for irrigation has agreed to hold the meeting again. Venue of the meeting, like whether in Bengaluru or Dakshina Kannada district, will be decided soon," he explained. He called upon the concerned to come up with suggestion about the venue of the meeting and who will participate in it from the district.
In reply to concerns raised by senior water expert, Prof S G Maiya, Oscar asked him to give all his questions in writing so that he can provide replies under Right to Information Act.
In his presentation, Maiya said that Yettinahole project, which is being projected now as a drinking water supply project, is planned to be supplied for industries, agriculture and meet water needs of Bengaluru city in course off time. Already Rs 15,000 crore being taxes collected from the people has been spent on this project, and no one knows how much more funds will go waste. There is no clarity about how much forest area will get destroyed by this project, He noted. He said that diversion of river water will have lasting affect on underground water table, and once river stops flowing, efforts to provide water by enriching water tables through percolation pits will be impracticable, he pointed out.
When Lobo questioned him about the probability of addressing water disputes and issues by the formation of Karnataka River Water Resources Authority, Maiya opined that a separate water policy can only provide solution to the problem.
Sudhir Shetty, a documentary photographer on environment, noted that this project was drawn by Narasimhappa and not Paramashivaiah. He said opinion from hydrologists had not been collected when drawing up this project.
Kemaru Sandeepani Math Sri Esha Vittalasa Swamiji, Gurpur Vajradehi math Sri Rajashekharananda Swamiji, parliamentary secretary to chief minister, Shakuntala Shetty, former MLA, Yogeesh Bhat, MLC, Pratapchandra Shetty, zilla panchayat president, Meenakshi Shantigodu and many others were present.
Head of Netravati Rakshana Samykta Samiti, Vijay Kumar Shetty, M G Hegde, Dinkar Shetty, Puruhotham Chitrapur, Satyajit Suratkal, Dinesh Holla, and others also participated in the meeting.