Daijworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Oct 9: President of Shashwata Neeravari Horta Samiti, Chikkaballapur, R Anjaneya Reddy, warned to seek a legal solution if the government does not come up with an acceptable explanation about the quantum of river available through Yettinahole project. He was addressing a press conference at Patrika Bhavan, Chikkaballapur, on Saturday, October 8 after holding a meeting with leaders of the agitation.

"It has been three years since Yettinahole project was taken up to mitigate water needs of this region. The government's claim that the project would generate 24 tmc of water had been dismissed by Indian Institute of Science (IISc) committee which conducted research into the aspect about two years back. It had found and confirmed that only 9.5 tmc water would be available from the project. IISC again put through its earlier finding to further scrutiny and came to the conclusion that its previous finding was accurate. This report was also published in an international journal. Still, the government is not prepared to accept the findings of this report," he noted.

Reddy said that those who were pinning their hopes on this project are now beginning to suspect the genuineness of the government's intentions. They are confused whether Rs 13,500 crore rupees have to be spent to get just 9.5 tmc water, and have been questioning whether the government is trying to mislead them through wrong information, he explained.

He called upon the government to make public its stand on IISc report and to proceed against the concerned if the facts mentioned in the report are factually incorrect. "If the government does not make its position known, our committee will fight in the court to extract opinion of the government on this report," he revealed.