The Congress members on Wednesday staged a protest at Jeppinamogaru against what they alleged as the Mangalore Special Economic Zone Limited's illegal assembling of a pipeline in the Netravati.
Staging a protest on the riverside, they raised slogans against the district administration for its alleged inaction. Protestors said the pipeline passed under the bridge and beyond making it difficult for fishing boats to cross the river. The MSEZL was assembling the pipeline in the river before shifting it to a place near Mukka for laying to transport effluents into the sea from the company site.
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee Secretary Ivan D'Souza said although the Deputy Commissioner called the pipeline illegal, because permission was not given to the MSEZL to assemble it in the river, work had been going on for several months.
In a letter on November 18 to the Managing Director of the company, Regional Director (Environment) of the Department of Forest, Environment and Ecology, wrote to the MSEZL, “requesting” it to stop assembling pipeline in the river as it did not have permission to do so.
In a letter to Deputy Commissioner N.S. Channappa Gowda on November 30, Mangalore City Corporation Commissioner Harish Kumar said the pipeline assembling was “illegal” and urged Mr. Gowda to take action as councillor Nagendra Kumar had said in the council meeting on November 29 that it was causing inconvenience to fishermen and sand miners.
Mr. D'Souza wanted to know why the district administration was not taking action against the company despite its “illegal” assembling of the pipeline in the river.
Congress councillors Appi, Nagendra Kumar, Mamata Shenoy, and Vijayalakshmi were present.
