A demand for a Tulu Nadu state was raised at the rasta roko organised to urge the government to drop the Yettinahole or the Netravathi diversion project at Mahaveer Circle here on Thursday.
Raising the matter while addressing a gathering, K. Vijaya Kumar Shetty, former Congress MLA and president of Karavali Jeevanadi Netravathi Rakshana Samithi, which has approached the National Green Tribunal against the project, alleged that the government continued to sideline Dakshina Kannada and Udupi without showing any courtesy to listen to the people first before going ahead with the project.
The days are not far away to press the demand for statehood if the government continued with such an attitude, he added.
Mr. Shetty said that Dakshina Kannada and Udupi were the highest revenue generating districts for the government in the State as people paid bills and taxes promptly. The government cannot take people in these two districts lightly.
‘A laboratory’
Esha Vitaladasa, seer of Kemar Sandeepani Ashram, said that Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts have become the “laboratory of experiments of projects” for the government. Many such projects have affected people and environment in the two districts. Hence, it was time to seek statehood.
Rajashekarananda, seer of Vajradehi Mutt, Gurupura, M.G. Hegde, vice-president of the samithi, said that as the government continued to ignore people of Dakshina Kannada, it was time for Tulu-speaking people to stake claim to their own identity by seeking statehood.
Annayya Kulal, an activist of Kannada Katte and a doctor, said that Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts gave the State banks, educational institutions, health, electricity and petroleum products. But the government is now taking away the water rights of the people by diverting a tributary of the Nethravathi. Hence, the days ahead may see people pressing for statehood.
Other speakers also said that the people might be forced to seek statehood if the government went ahead with the project.
