Mangaluru, Oct 4: President of Shashwatha Neeravari Horata Samiti, Chikkaballapur Anjaneya Reddy urged the state government to propose a scientifically feasible alternative for Yettinahole project in order to provide drinking water to the people of Kolar and Chikkaballapur, one which would not cause damage to the Western Ghats and Nethravati water.
Speaking at a press conference after a joint discussion of leaders was held on Sunday to discuss the further course of action to urge the state government to abandon the Yettinahole project, he said that the people of Kolar and Chikkaballapur had no confidence of getting water through the hastily-chalked Yettinahole project, and wished for an alternative which was scientifically feasible and did not cause damage to other parts of the state. “As the National Green Tribunal bench suggests, the government should review the project before implementing it. First, they should determine how much water is available at the source, conduct a scientific study and only then, tell the people of Kolar-Chikkaballapur districts how much water we will receive,” he said.
He urged the state government and elected representatives representing Kolar and Chikkaballapur as well as coastal Karnataka not to give false and misleading statements to the people concerning the Yettinahole project.
'Yettinahole multipurpose project; DPR misleading'
National Institute of Technology-Karnataka (NITK) Prof G S Mayya said that the feasibility report and detailed project report prepared by the Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Limited (KNNL) were the same. The Detailed Project Report (DPR) is highly misleading at every stage and reveals that the Yettinahole project was actually a multi-purpose project, not a drinking water project as it is touted. Out of the 24 TMC which will be diverted from the tributaries of Nethravati river, the water proposed for Kolar and Chikkaballapur (parched districts) is merely 5 TMC. There is no doubt that the project is extremely disastrous to Western Ghats, he said, stressing that the government should stop the implementation of the project.
Rubbishing the claim that the water would be diverted to provide drinking water to parched districts, Prof Mayya said that transporting water through an open canal of 276-km in length would not reach the beneficiaries in Kolar and Chikkaballapur. The KNNL has also taken faulty estimation of rainfall in Sakleshpur as their basis for calculating available water at the source while preparing the DPR for Yettinahole project, he criticised.
Congress leader Vijay Kumar Shetty said that the state government did not have a certain stand on the project. Despite assurances from the chief minister that the project would not be implemented in a hasty manner, they have begun the project by keeping people of the state in the dark, he said.
Rally to Yettinahole to create awareness
Speaking on the occasion, retired IAS officer V V Bhat said that in the joint discussion of several representatives held on Sunday, it was decided to organise a jatha to Yettinahole in Sakleshpur taluk in the coming days to spread awareness among people on the consequences of the project locally.
An expert committee should be formed by the government to conduct a social impact assessment of the project in Dakshina Kannada, considering the entire district as the affected area. A discussion was held on protecting the integrity of the entire Nethravati river basin, and urging the government to form a legislation to abandon the project, he said.
He informed mediapersons that out of the three petitions filed before the National Green Tribunal in Chennai on the Yettinahole project, the next hearing on one of the petitions would be on October 19.
Senior advocate Shankar Bhat and several representatives were present on the occasion and participated in the joint discussion with Anjaneya Reddy
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