Mangaluru: Calling former chief minister Sadananda Gowda and M Veerappa Moily as the ‘masterminds’ behind the detrimental Yettinahole Project, the Netravati Rakshana Samyukta Vedike (NRSV) waved black flags at the two, on Saturday, June 11, outside Town Hall, Mangaluru.

                        Vijay Kumar Shetty leading the protest along with NRSV members opposite Town Hall

Though Union Minister for Law and Justice D V Sadananda Gowda and Chikkaballapura MP Veerappa Moily both remained absent at the private TV channel’s tenth year anniversary programme that the duo was supposed to attend, the Vedike went ahead with its plans and waved black flags.

Addressing the reporters, Vedike President Vijay Kumar Shetty said that their intention was not to spoil the joyous occasion of the TV channel, but their purpose was only to showcase the anger that people have nurtured against the two leaders who left a sword hanging over the head of their own motherland.

“If the project is not withdrawn then we won’t allow Moily and Gowda to enter the district,” he warned.

“The Congress and the BJP have not plunged into war of words over the Yettinahole Project because both the parties are at gain if the project is implemented,” said Vedike Convenor M G Hegde adding that in future even organizations, companies and individuals inviting the two to the district to attend public prorgammes will also be condemned.

State Convenor of Paschima Ghatta Samrakshana Samiti K N Somashekhar, Harikrishna Bantwal, Satyajit Surathkal, Yogesh Shetty Jeppu, Sharan Pumpwell and other members of the Vedike were present in the protest.