Mangaluru: Activists of Dakshina Kannada opposing the controversial Yettinahole project have not given up despite the National Green Tribunal (NGT) dismissing environmentalist, Somashekhar's plea and giving the go ahead for the first phase of the project with some riders. Their hopes are now pinned on two more cases pending before the tribunal.
While officials of the Visveshvaraya Jala Nigam Limited had on Friday claimed the government could now execute the project, the greens here note that the NGT has still not given its verdict on cases filed by one Mr Kishore of Sakaleshpur and former Deputy Mayor of Mangaluru, Purushottam Chitrapur against it.
“We are hopeful of winning as we have a very strong case. Our objection is to the project violating the riparian water rights of Dakshina Kannada and we have also pointed out that the carrying capacity report has not been provided by the officials, which is very important for a project like this one. The NGT has asked them to submit the report in two months and posted the case for argument on November 2,” Mr Purushottam told the Deccan Chronicle.
He believes the verdict on Mr Somashekhar's case will not impact his plea as it is based on a different contention altogether.
“We have told the court that there is a water crisis downstream of the river and this project violates our riparian rights. We have also argued that the Detailed Project Report (DPR) submitted by the government was misguiding as the water available in the river for diversion to other districts is not 24 TMC as claimed,” he added.
The ambitious Rs 13,000 crore project aims to divert the Yettinahole, a vital tributary of the Netravathi river originating in the Western ghats, to provide drinking water to the parched villages of Tumakuru, Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Ramanagara and Bengaluru Rural.
