Mangaluru : The Netravathi Rakshana Samyutka Samiti, an action committee of organisations fighting against the Yettinahole project, on Friday urged B. Ramanath Rai, Minister in-charge of Dakshina Kannada, to make his stand clear on the Chief Minister’s recent assurance that the government was committed to taking up a “permanent irrigation project” to supply water to the parched districts.
At a meeting, M.G. Hegde, an activist, claimed that it was in 2006 that Mr. Rai had convened a meeting in Sandesha, Bajjodi, here against the then “Netravathi diversion project”. Mr. Hegde said that he had been made one among two conveners of the meeting called then. Mr. Hegde said that taking up a “permanent irrigation project” was nothing but implementing recommendations of the G.S. Paramashivaiah Committee Report, according to which, water from west-flowing rivers, including Netravathi and Kumaradhara tributaries, would be lifted for supplying water to the parched districts. The Chief Minister gave the assurance after a farmers’ agitation in Bengaluru recently, he said.
Now Mr. Rai, who is also the Minister for Forests, Environment and Ecology, should come out with this clear stand on the assurance, Mr. Hegde said. Mr. Hegde said that Minister for Health and Family Welfare U.T. Khader should also make his stand clear.