Water sharing is not a contentious issue just between neighbouring States. Districts within the landscape of a State are now fighting for water, as the raging controversy over the Yettinahole project shows.
The people of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi are strongly opposed to diverting water from Yettinahole stream that joins Gundia, a tributary of Netravathi, to supply water to the parched districts of Bengaluru Rural, Kolar, Tumakuru, Chikkaballapur and Ramanagaram. They say it is an ecologically ill-conceived idea. The people of drought-prone southern districts, on the other hand, are demanding execution of the project for diversion of water from west-flowing rivers to quench their thirst.
This has set off a war between political leaders from coastal districts where the tributary is located and the arid districts the project is meant to benefit. Countering coastal districts leaders’ claims that the Rs. 12,912 crore project will deplete flow of water in the Netravathi and groundwater in villages, leaders from Tumakur and Kolar point out that the project envisages diverting water only during the monsoon, which otherwise flows to the sea.
It is learnt that two Cabinet Ministers from coastal districts have taken Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil to task for focusing too much on Yettinahole project without conducting a social impact assessment. This has forced the government to announce that will conduct an assessment.
There are interesting splits within the parties on this issue. Recently, veteran Congressman B. Janardhana Poojary and former Union Minister and MP M. Veerappa Moily sparred over the implementation of the project. Mr. Moily’s position is not enviable, since he has contested the last two elections from Chikkaballapur but hails from Dakshina Kannada. In the BJP ranks, while Central Minister and BJP leader D.V. Sadananda Gowda is for the project, other leaders from the district are firmly opposed to it.
The ruling Congress, which has bagged seven out eight Assembly seats in the 2013 Assembly polls in Dakshina Kannada, finds itself in quite a fix. It now seems to be giving a push to the long-pending Paschima Vahini scheme, to assuage the anti-Yettinahole sentiments.
Yettinahole project
- Project envisages drinking water to 28 taluks in seven districts
- Benefits 68.5 lakh people
- 24.01 tmc ft. water will be lifted
- Total cost is Rs. 12,912.36 cr.
- Cabinet decided to conduct Social Impact Assessment as per 2013 Land Acquisition Act
