The BJP on Monday urged Water Resources Minister M. B. Patil to convene two meetings to discuss the proposed Yettinahole (Nethravati) diversion project.
Addressing presspersons here, president of Dakshina Kannada unit of the party Prathapsimha Nayak said the party was urging the Minister to convene the first meeting in Dakshina Kannada. The second meeting could be held in Bangalore. Mr. Nayak said that representatives of political parties, NGOs, those who supported and who opposed the project and activists should be invited to the meetings. He said the Minister should announce the date of the first meeting at the earliest.
Mr. Nayak said that the executive of the district unit which met here on June 7 passed a resolution to this effect.
He said a committee headed by Prahlad Joshi, president of the State unit, had been formed to discuss the project. The committee had met once where basics of the project were discussed. To a question, he said that presidents of district units of Kolar and Chikballapur were not present in the meetings. It was attended among others by presidents of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts and some State leaders from the Western Ghats belt. Asked about the stand of the party on the project, he said its pros and cons should be discussed first.
Referring to the proposal of regularising the sites of houses built by encroaching the government land, he said the party was urging the government to receive them in gram panchayats. It would be easy for the applicants to get information and file applications, he noted. He alleged that police on the pressure by the ruling Congress government were filing false cases against BJP activists here.
