Yettinahole: Delegation meets Union ministers

: An all-party delegation led by 'Nethravati river protection committee' that met Union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Uma Bharti on December 17 claimed they had got a positive response on their demand for stoppage of work on the project, which would reportedly adversely affect the people of Dakshina Kannada district.
Samiti president Vijaykumar Shetty said in a statement here that the delegation, including Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel apprised the Ministers of the dangers the project would cause to the Nethravati river basin and environment.
Though it was projected as a drinking water scheme, Yettinahole was meant to be a multipurpose project,which would affect the Western Ghats and the coastal region. A total of 13 hectares of forest would be destroyed if it was implemented. The detailed project report on the river diversion was prepared based on wrong calculations of rainfall, Shetty said.

Javadekar had assured that the project would be examined in detail and appropriate steps taken if it causes drinking water shortage in DK, he said.
Prof. S G Mayya of NIT-K, retired IAS officer V V Bhat, Mangaluru deputy mayor Purushotham Chitrapur, Shashiraj Shetty Kolambe,Ramachandra Baikampady, K N Somashekar,advocate Prince Isaac and BJP leader Sanjeeva Matandoor were also part of the delegation.
The delegation also decided to meet the team of Regional Empowered Committee (REC) of Ministry of Environment and Forests visiting the project area in Sakleshpur on Dec 26.
Prof Mayya said they would convince the REC team that the project would endanger the ecology of Western Ghats.

The southern zone bench of National Green Tribunal had directed Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Limited (KNNL) to maintain status quo by not carrying out work on the Yettinahole project till its next hearing scheduled for January 8, he said.