Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)
Udupi, May 12: Nagarjuna Vorodhi Horata Samiti has decided to file court cases against district in-charge minister. Dr V S Acharya, environment minister, Krishna J Palemar, MP, D V Sadanand Gowda and local MLA, Lalaji Mendon. “The concerned have already been served with intimation letters in this respect by the Samiti,” said convener of the Samiti, Vijaykumar Hegde. He was addressing a press conference organized here on Tuesday May 11.
“The state home minister has exceeded his jurisdiction, and has wielded his influence to help Nagarjuna (Udupi Power Corporation Ltd - UPCL) in its illegal activities. Environment minister, Krishna Palemar, MP, D V Sadanand Gowda, and MLA, Lalaji Mendon, forgot their duty towards protecting the interests of the people, and wholeheartedly supported the company. They have neglected the study reports which held that coal-based power plants were not suitable for this ecologically sensitive region. Hence, the Samiti has decided to book them,” he explained.
Hegde alleged that the pipe that is meant to discharge fly ash produced by UPCL into the sea should have extended up to 1.5 kms into the sea. “As against this condition, the company has laid its pipe only half a km into the sea. Even in stocking and using of coal, the company has failed to comply with the conditions laid down in Clean Coal Technology,” he said.
He claimed that the previous Congress and JDS government in the state had taken due note of the opposition of the people for the setting up of the thermal power plant near Padubidri. He said, the previous governments therefore, had not rushed through the project. However, once the BJP formed the government, it failed to respect the sentiments of the people and steamrolled the opposition, he lamented.
The Samiti has given a week’s time for these leaders to show all the permissions and licences secured by UPCL so far, duly explaining how the company proposes to handle possible catastrophes, the threat of which looms large on the people here. “If the company cannot do so, it should stop functioning immediately. If the concerned fail to act, we will file suits in the courts against all of them. We have given this warning in the letters sent to them individually,” Hegde explained. He spelt out the disasters waiting to happen as the tragic decline of fishing activity in the coast, rendering of water bodies around the plant useless because of the fly ash pit, destruction of Western Ghats, increase of temperature and closure of educational institutions, religious centres and hospitals in the district.
Samiti activists, Tyampanna Shetty, Amrit Shenoy and JDS district president, Deviprasad Shetty, were present at the press conference.