Samithi plans hunger strike over Yettinahole

Netravathi Rakshana Samyukta Samithi will stage a hunger strike in front of the DC’s office from 10 am on March 17 to urge the government to drop Yettinahole project.

Addressing mediapersons on Tuesday, Samithi leader M G Hegde said the hunger strike is held before the State budget to register the protest against the project.

The main demands of the Samithi are setting up of Netravathi River Authority, implementation of an integrated irrigation project in the coastal districts and exclusion of Dakshina Kannada district from SEZ, he added.

Hegde said the government is aware that the water cannot be supplied to the plain region from Netravathi river. But, it is adamant on implementing the project.

The ministers from the district are making ridiculous statements. Irrigation Minister M B Patil has said that water will be drawn from Sharavathi river. It means that the government has agreed to the fact that water from Yettinahole will not be sufficient, he criticised.

Hegde questioned why the opinion of the people of the district is not taken in this regard and asked whether people are not part of the government. This is the question of the survival of coastal districts. By planning to announce the district as an industrially sensitive zone, a conspiracy is hatched against the coastal district at the State government level. The intention of the government is to make the land unfit for agriculture by dumping industries, he claimed.

Fishermen community leader Ramachandar Baikampadi, Tulunada Rakshana Vedike President Yogish Shetty Jeppu, Sri Ram Sene Vibhag Pramukh Anand Shetty, Karnataka Rakshana Vedike leader Rahim Ucchil and All College Student Association Convener Rohit Kumar were present.