Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Sep 21: The applications seeking cancellation of Yettinahole project on various grounds, moved before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), will come up for hearing at the main bench of the tribunal at New Delhi on Wednesday September 21. There is suspense over whether the arguments will take place today, whether the bench will pass its final verdict forthwith, or whether a new date will be fixed for arguments.

The case had reached its final stage in the Chennai bench of NGT but final verdict had not been delivered as one of the members of the bench retired while the other expert member resigned. In view of the delay, the petitioners had sought transfer of the case to main bench, which was upheld in spite of efforts made by Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Ltd to transfer the case back to Chennai.

The bench presided over by Justice Swatanter Kumar will be taking up applications against Yettinahole filed by Purushotham Chitrapur from the city, H A Kishore from Hassan, K N Somashekhar from Mysuru, and Yatiraju from Tumakuru. Supreme Court lawyer, Sanjay Hegde, representing Purushotham Chitrapur, will be seeking a different date for arguments through his junior as he is otherwise busy. Therefore, arguments on this application may not happen today. K N Somashekhar is being represented by high court lawyer, Prince Issac, and Supreme Court lawyer, Ritwik Dutta.

In its interim order, the bench had stayed cutting down of trees in the project area. Somashekhar, who moved around the area, has pooled information about blatant violation of this order. He will be filing affidavit about his findings in the tribunal today. Either way, the case is sure to be referred to Supreme Court.

The fact that former chief ministers, D V Sadananda Gowda and Veerappa Moily, have been stoutly supporting the project has come in the way of striking unity among people's representatives hailing from Karnataka coast about opposing this project. These two seem to be hell-bent on executing this project, although there is no proper scientific evidence to prove that Yettinahole can generate 24 tmc water during monsoon months. It is also clear that with passage of time, demand for water from this project will go on increasing, and there seems to be no plan about how to meet it.