Mangalore: The state government’s move to divert the Nethravathi waters to old Mysore districts of Mandya and Kolar to quench the thirst of people living in those drought affected areas if any, has been met with opposition by Nethravathi users’ Forum of river water users at a meeting held on Sunday. The meeting resolved to write to DK District Panchayat and authorities of Mangalore city Corporation to pass stringent resolutions in their own meetings urging the state rulers to drop the dangerous move of inviting drought in coastal regions.
Former MLA (Surat kal) Vijaykumar Shetty in his speech at the Forum (Vedike) meeting on June 19 stated that Vedike did not discuss political matters. Professor S G Maiya(NITK) informed that the BJP govt, was trying to mislead the people on Netravathi river Diversion which hurt local residents. The Govt had reserved Rs200 crores in the 2011-12 budget to bring water from Yettinahole canal, a tributary of Netravathi, to the parched districts of Mysore Karnataka. But the reference was masked.
The people unfamiliar with Western Ghats would not know, if Yettinahole was a major connect of river Nethravathi and give the nod before realising what was at stake, the NITK professor pointed out. This amounts to fooling them by CM who presented the budget as Finance Minister. There was no excess water in the main river to divert, except in monsoon season, he added.
A social activist, Sundar Rao, from Bantwal, made fun of the Govt, by saying that it was counting chicken before the eggs hatched. The govt plan was draw water from Yettinahole, even before it overflowed in Dharmasthala. Not a single study was done in 60 years of freedom on Nethravathi flows from Western Ghats to the sea via Dharmasthala.
Prof. Maiya declared that all rivers should have a minimum amount of water in them to serve ecology around or face dry beds of sand in them. Retired Engineer Paramasivaiah, who mooted the proposal of diverting river waters, had no specific idea on this project, he added. M.G.Hegde, P.V.Mohan, Vasudeva Boloor, KRRS local chief Rohitaksha Rai among others were present at the meeting.