Mangaluru : Senior Congress leader B. Janardhana Poojary on Saturday warned that the indifference of the government towards concerns of people in the coastal districts against the Yettinahole water diversion project could only intensify the demand for statehood for the coastal region.

Speaking to presspersons here, Mr. Poojary said that if anything happens on that account, only the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should be held responsible for dividing the State. He said that the governments have been playing with the lives and sentiments of people in the coastal region for political gains.

It appears that the government itself is keen on dividing the State. People in the coastal region have been forced to believe that the government is not allowing them to live peacefully. It is also not responding to the sentiments of the people. In such a situation, people are thinking of demanding and having a state for themselves and that that was the only solution, he said.

It is sad that representatives of people from the region, including the Lok Sabha member, have remained mute spectators about the Yettinahole project.

Mr. Poojary said that the government appears to be under the impression that only farmers from the plain lands are the real farmers and those in the coastal region are not.

It is not that people in the coastal region are against providing water to the arid regions but it should not be at the cost of lives of people in the coastal region. The government should provide permanent irrigation solution to the arid regions, he said.