Bengaluru: The meeting convened by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to discuss Yettinahole project on Monday failed to arrive at a consensus with the elected representatives from Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts opposing the project.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah convened the meeting at his home office Krishna for all stakeholders in Yettinahole project to discuss the problems and confusion in implementing the project. The state government has taken up this project to provide drinking water to Kolar, Tumkur, Chikballapur, Hassan and Bengaluru rural districts at an estimated cost of Rs 13,000 crore and it has already spent more than Rs 2,000 crore for this purpose. The implementation of the project has become difficult since the elected representatives from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts opposing the project.
The meeting convened by the chief minister was attended by Water Resources Minister M B Patil, Minister for Forest, Environment and Ecology Ramnath Rai, Minister for Fisheries and Youth Empowerment Pramod Madhwaraj, Rajya Sabha MP Oscar Fernandes, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, legislators Abhaychandra Jain, Kota Srinivas Poojari, Pratap Chandra Shetty, Vasant Bangera, Sunil Kumar, former minister Krishna Palemar and others.
It was said that BJP leaders and other activists had opposed the project in the meeting. The BJP leaders made it clear that they had no objection if the state government supplies water from Yettinahole, Kempuhole and six tributaries to Kolar and other districts but how the government could supply water when 24 TMC water not available. They said that people of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts would not keep quiet if the state government go ahead with the project. At this juncture, Minister Ramanath Rai and Congress leaders had objected BJP leaders stating that the project was proposed during the BJP regime. Congress and BJP leaders shout slogans against each other.
Meanwhile, Minister for Water Resources M B Patil has attempted to convince the agitating elected representatives by stating that 24 TMC water would be available through Yettinahole project and it would benefit arid districts of Kolar, Chikballapur, Tumkur and Hassan. The BJP leaders again made it clear that they had no objection to the government’s plan to supply water to arid districts if there is sufficient water. “Will the people Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts will keep quiet when the government divert water to Kolar and other districts when there was no sufficient water available?’’ the BJP leaders asked.
