Pics: Meryick D'Silva
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (CLP)

Mangaluru, Sep 23: A press meet called by Rajya Sabha MP Oscar Fernandes and district incharge minister Ramanath Rai at Pilikula Nisargadharma here on Wednesday September 23 to brief about the activities and plans of the Congress party took a chaotic turn as the leaders failed to give satisfactory answers to questions on the controversial Yettinahole project.

Prior to the press meet, the mediapersons also refused to take the bus that was arranged from the city to Pilikula, as a mark of protest over Yettinahole issue. After the press meet, they boycotted the lunch offered by Ramanath Rai and walked out.

During the press meet, Ramanath Rai said, "The Congress government has been working in favour of the poor sections of the society. The BJP government has made only fake promises with regard to black money. There is no clarity on Jan Dhan Yojana till now. The Congress held a meeting with its workers recently to discuss these issues and chalk out strategies to strengthen the party. Many steps will be taken soon to strengthen the party at the booth, taluk and district levels, and another meeting will be called soon to further discuss the reasons for our party's poor performance in the recent gram panchayat elections."

Addressing the media Oscar Fernandes said, "The meeting was convened to discuss how to strengthen the party and to discuss how the people-friendly schemes launched by the state government can effectively reach the people. Another meeting will be called within 15 days. The main agenda will be to plan the celebration of the 125 birth anniversary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru."

As soon as the briefing was over, the mediapersons bombarded the minister and the MP with questions regarding the Yettinahole project. The main question was who was accountable for the Rs 1,500 crore already spent on the project so far, with no clear records and information.

In response, Oscar Fernandes said, "The chief minister has agreed to organize a meeting in Bengaluru, where people's opinions will be discussed with elected representatives and experts. We have been receiving many opinions and suggestions, and we will organize the meeting within one week.

"The implementation of the project and alleged corruption in the project are two diffrent issues and we will discuss and inform the government if any wrongdoing is found," he added.

Ramanath Rai said, "Yettinahole project is not a new project, it was started long back, and already several press meets have been called to give details about the project. The BJP initiated the project and as there was need for water supply in north Karnataka, we started the project after taking the opinions of the ministers concerned into consideration."

When reporters persisted with their questions, Rai said, "Questions on the project should be asked to the irrigation minister or technical experts only. I am not a technical man, I will answer questions regarding the forest department only. As per my official data, only 13.92 hectares of land and only one percent of reserve forest will be used for the project. The central government has said there are no mandatory rules for environmental assessment survey for drinking water projects but still we conducted it."

When a reporter pointed out that only 3 TMC water obtained from the project would be used for drinking purpose and the rest for irrigation, and hence it would necessiated assessment survey, Rai said, "There will be a meeting in Bengaluru with experts and all the questions will be answered. As per official data 13.92 hectares of land will be used. Rest all the information is false. I am not the person to answer tecnical questions and the media knows that I will not be able to speak beyond my department."

Angry over the minister's failure to give satisfactory replies to the questions, all the media persons boycotted the press meet. Rai requested the reporters not to become personal on the issue, but the mediapersons walked out, refusing his offer to stay for lunch.