BJP state chief offers to take up Yettinahole issue with CM

BJP state president and former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa has offered to take up with Chief Minister Siddramaiah the concerns of the people of coastal Dakshina Kannada (DK) district over the proposed Yettinahole river diversion project.
He told representatives of the Nethravati Rakshana Samyukta Samiti (Joint Council for protection of Nethravati) that he supported the stance of BJP's MP Nalin Kumar Kateel representing DK that the project would dry up the Karnataka coast and the parched districts would not get any benefit out of it.
The Samiti members met the BJP chief during his visit here on April 23.

Prof S G Mayya, one of the main leaders of the Samiti, impressed upon Yeddyurappa that Yettinahole would never be able to generate 24 tmc of water as envisaged in the report on the project, a Samiti release here said.
The implementation of the project would also have serious repercussions on the ecology of Western Ghats, he toldYeddyurappa.
The project is coming up in the midst of the Ghats in Hassan district off the DK-Hassan district border along the National Highway 75.
Samiti members M G Hegde and Ramachander Bykampady briefed the BJP chief on the various lacunae in the project.

Yeddyurappa, who had been blamed by his political opponents for giving approval to the project during his tenure as Chief Minister, said considering the present water scarcityin the coastal areas, threadbare discussions would be needed before proceeding with the project which was meant to drawexcess water from the tributaries of Nethravati river.