Mangaluru: Karavali Jeevanadi – Netravati Rakshana Samiti held a press meet at hotel Woodlands here, on December 21.
Addressing the mediapersons, Vijaykumar Shetty, a member of the KJNRS, said that a delegation led by MP Nalin Kumar Kateel went to Delhi to meet the minister of Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar to hand over a memorandum to save Yettinahole river from being diverted.
He further said that Minister Prakash Javadekar assured to do justice with the people of Dakshina Kannada. “Our delegation also met the minister for Water Resources Uma Bharati and submitted a memorandum to her. In the memorandum, it has been mentioned that the implementation of the Yettinahole project in Karnataka is in violation of the National Water Policy. We have to bring a case of gross violation of the principles of National Water Policy by the government of Karnataka in respect of the Yettinahole project in the Western Ghats and seek appropriate relief from the ministry of water resources. The Yettinahole project, which has an estimated cost of Rs 13000 crores, violates the basic principles involved in planning, development and management of water resources. The delegation also urged the minister to investigation the violation of the basic principles of water policy in Yettinahole project. Uma Bharati has assured to do justice with the people of DK,” he said.
Prof Mayya addressing the mediapersons said, “When we met minister Javadekar, we urged him to investigate the points mentioned [below] because the government of Karnataka has taken the above mentioned clarification as environmental clearance for the Yettinahole project and gone ahead with its implementation and that too in violation of the following critically important conditions.
- Necessary permission/clearance for diversion of forest land for the project shsll be obtained from the designated authority before commencement of the project.
- Any other mandatory clearance/statutory permission from any other organization/department is to be obtained by the project proponent.
- The MoEF had specially stated in its above mentioned letter that it reserves the right to reconsider the matter, if so warranted.
- Four petitions have been filed in the National Green Tribunal Chennai Bench seeking to quash the project on various grounds, in which the project proponent has given an undertaking to not continue the work until clearance of MoEF is obtained.
- Yettinahole project, originally conceived as a “multipurpose project”, was misrepresented before this ministry as “Exclusive drinking water supply project” and the “clarification” obtained on such misrepresentation amounts to fraud. The detailed project report was completed in December 2013, it contains minor irrigation component which accounts for more than half of the water targeted in addition to industrial water supply and recharging ground water.
Advocate Dinaker Shetty, Uttam Alva, Purushotham Chitrapur, Sanjeev Matandoor, Shashiraj Kolambe, Ramachandra Baikampady and others were also present at the press meet.