Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Apr 19: National Green Tribunal's Chennai zonal bench (green bench) has said that it will pronounce its orders over demand for maintenance of status quo in Yettinahole drinking water project in about a week.

The bench made this observation after holding extended hearings into the complaint filed K N Somashekhar from Bengaluru, who has sought a stay against the project which envisages diversion of river water from Yettinahole to meet water needs of the districts located in the plains.

Hearing of the writ petition seeking to suspend works under Yettinahole project has been going on since some months. It has been about one and a half months since the application was filed seeking to maintain status quo, observing that thousands of trees have been felled without permission from the forest department. When advocate for the petitioner pointed out that final decision in this case is yet to be announced even after inordinate delay, the bench said it would come out with the order in a week.

The bench has upheld the request of the petitioner to include state chief minister, who happens to be the chairman of Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Ltd, which is executing this project, as a party to the dispute. The bench issued notices to Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Ltd and forest department accordingly. Petitioner, Somashekhar, informed that during the hearing on Monday, no advocate represented the chief minister in the green bench.