Mangaluru: “People of Karnataka coastal belt do not wish to see the people of Tumakuru and other drought-stricken in North Karnataka suffer because of water problems, however, it absolutely makes no sense in diverting water from the River Netravati in order to provide them water,” said former union minister Janardhan Poojary.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the Kudroli temple feast after offering a special Urulu Seve seeking the cancellation of the Yettinahole project on Friday, October 16.
“The government has been issuing false statements that the Yettinahole project intends to supply 24tmc water to Tumakuru, Chikkaballapur, Doddaballapur and Bengaluru Rural. It is not feasible as not even 1tmc of water can be diverted scientifically,” he said, adding that several requests made by him to the Karnataka Chief Minister were sidelined.
Sonia Gandhi’s request turned down
In what could spark a controversy, Poojary said that he had appealed to Congress National President Sonia Gandhi to discuss the river diversion issue with the state high command and call it off. However, Poojary said that even Sonia Gandhi’s request was ignored.
Local representatives convinced with project
Poojary said that though there were four top brass ministers hailing from the undivided Dakshina Kannada district, they would not oppose the project as they feared to speak against the state party bigwigs. He also opined that the meet called by CM Siddaramaiah on October 19 at the Vidhana Soudha in relation to the said project might not yield result as desired by the people here as the local representatives were already convinced with the project and had already given their consent.
It may however be recalled that MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, MLA JR Lobo and MLC Ganesh Karnik had participated in the protest called by environmentalists against the project on October 15.
On being questioned about being called upon by the high command with regard to his comments and public criticism on the Yettinahole project, he said that this information was not true and refused to comment any further.
