A meeting of people’s representatives from the districts expected to benefit from the proposed Yettinahole project has resolved to press for laying the foundation stone for the drinking water project by January.
Meeting today
The meeting on Friday, attended by Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly N.H. Shivashankar Reddy and the former Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar, was held in preparation for the meeting on the project to be held on Sunday by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
The project is meant to provide drinking water to the arid zones of Kolar, Chickballapur, Tumkur and Bangalore Rural districts by diverting water from the Yettinahole, one of the tributaries of the Netravati.
Members of the Shashwata Neervari Horata Samiti from Kolar and Chikballapur districts said the project should not get restricted only for providing drinking water and the G.S. Paramashivaiah committee report should be implemented with the larger purpose of providing irrigation facilities to the region under the Netravati River Diversion Project. The meeting, however, resolved that the Yettinahole drinking water project should be taken on priority in the first phase since all technical and financial aspects of it have been cleared. Mr. Reddy said that implementation of the lager report, which requires environmental clearance and throws up several technological challenges, may require more time and resources. Mr. Ramesh Kumar said issues such as tunnelling through the Western Ghats were unlikely to be cleared by the Union government.
Tenders
Officials of Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Ltd. said the work on the project was under way and tenders would be finalised in the next board meeting. They said that there was no dispute on the extent of water yield, pegged at 24 tmcft.
