Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru
Mangaluru, Jan 23: Sahyadri Sanchaya, an NGO working for the protection of Western Ghats, and which has been at the forefront of the agitation against Yettinahole project, will field candidates from a few constituencies in the upcoming state Assembly elections, announced environment activist and convenor of Sahyadri Sanchaya Dinesh Holla.
Addressing a press meet here on Tuesday January 23, Holla said, "The candidates will those who support the agitation to save the Netravati river and the Western Ghats. We have already met a few people who are interested in contesting the elections on behalf of Sahyadri Sanchaya.
"In constituencies where we do not have candidates, we will go for NOTA (none of the above in voting machine) agitation. We will start a NOTA campaign for this purpose," he added.
"In the last elections also we conducted a NOTA campaign and during the last parliamentary elections, Dakshina Kannada registered around 7,500 NOTA votes. In panchayat elections, 28,000 voters opted for NOTA. This time we will campaign aggressively for NOTA. We hope that we can shock all politicians and political parties who are not showing any interest in saving the Netravati.
"Besides this, we will also distribute boards displaying request to Congress, BJP, JD(S) and other leaders to not seek votes from us. Anybody who opposed the Yettinahole project can hang this board in their gates," he said.
He also said that on January 26 on the occasion of Republic Day, Sahyadri Sanchaya will lead a protest in front of the DC's office with the slogan 'Save Western Ghats'.
"Western Ghats is completely controlled by drug and resort mafia. The forest minister (Ramanath Rai) has lost control over his department. Thousands of hectares of land has been grabbed by this mafia and they are not allowing anyone to enter this region. The recent story of Naxal visit was completely fabricated by this mafia. There is no Naxal activity now in this region. Areas such as Barimale, Ambattimale, Banjarmale, Somana Kadu, Aramane Gudda are already encroached by this mafia. There is also a poaching mafia active in this area, mainly consisting of two teams, one each from Kundapur and Bhatkal," he said.
"The forest minister is not showing any interest in the functioning of his department. Last time when fire broke out in the forest in some parts of district, activists had requested the minister to deploy a helicopter to control the fire. But he mocked us saying India is not like foreign countries, and that we cannot use helicopters for these purposes," he said.
Shashidhar Hegde and Rajesh Pavan were present at the press meet.