Mangalore: Yettinahole project for vote and note - Dinesh Holla
Pics: Brijesh Garodi
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (BG)
Mangalore, Jan 1: "Over the recent years, the Western Ghats has been getting damaged and becoming extinct day by day. Netravati has also been drying up due to lesser rainfall. If this continues, the district will have to face acute shortage of water and hence we must protect our Netravati from the proposed Yettinahole project," said Dinesh Holla, the president of Sahyadri Samrakshana Sanchaya (Karavali Yuva Sinchana & Charana Balagada Okkuta), at a press meet here on Wednesday, January 1.
"Union minister Veerappa Moily and the state forest minister Ramanath Rai, who both hail from the Dakshina Kannada district are cheating the people of DK and putting them in trouble in a bid to solve the water crisis of Chikkaballapur and Kolar. They are doing this for political gain and vote bank," he said.
"The people's representatives have agreed to this project solely for vote bank and to satiate their greed for crores of money. This is a gameplan with focus on the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Technically this project is going to be a failure and still if the political leaders try to forcibly implement the project, the Netravati will lose its natural state and the people of the coastal belt will have to face acute shortage of water," he added.
"Flats, apartments, malls are increasing in the district and one can imagine the quantity of water being utilized daily, hence it is not worth carrying out this project and the ministers and the MLAs must look into this matter seriously and withdraw the project immediately to save the Netravati," he urged.
"As part of a massive protest, the ‘Sahyadri Samrakshana Sanchaya’ will hold a hunger strike, protests and awareness campaigns in various places. A day-long hunger strike will be held on January 10 in front of the DC's office, another protest by getting into the Netravati river in Uppinangady on January 24 and one more in Ullal on February 24," he informed.
The team has also carried out trekking across the Netravati belt and created a short film named “Netravati Ulisi”, which will be displayed in various schools, colleges, institutes and other public places so as to create awareness in this regard, he added.
Swapna Noronha, Madhav Ullal, Praveen Kumar, Girish Kumar and others were present.