It’s now too late to stop the Yettinahole project, says Khader

U.T. Khader, Health and Family Welfare Minister, said on Saturday that people of Dakshina Kannada should show their large heartedness and allow water from Yettinahole Project to flow to the parched districts of South Karnataka. Speaking to presspersons here, Mr. Khader said that districts including Kolar were facing a massive drinking water problem. “I am Kolar district in-charge Minister. The water problem there saddens me. Water is a national resource. We should help people who are in need. ‘Live and let live’ should be our motto. People should give up their narrow mindedness,” he said. After all, the people in the parched districts were asking for water during monsoon, which went waste into the Arabian Sea. “It is a humanitarian problem. It requires a humane solution,” he said. ‘Old decision’ To a question, he said that though the State government had the power to review its earlier decisions, in the case of Yettinahole project, the decision was already taken by the Bharatiya Janata Party government led by the then Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda. The Congress had then urged Mr. Sadananda Gowda to study the feasibility of the project and discuss it thoroughly before implementing it. But he had gone ahead and got the nod of the Legislative Assembly for the project. If there were any objections, it should have been expressed in the early stages. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had launched the project in March 2014. The implementation of the project is already under way. “But people (in Dakshina Kannada) are protesting now. Besides, the eight legislators from Dakshina Kannada are no match to 110 MLAs from the parched districts of south Karnataka in the Assembly,” he said. Asked if the Yettinahole project was scientific, Mr. Khader said that he was not a technical expert. He did not know whether it was scientific or not or whether the water will reach the parched districts. Doubts to be cleared Major and Medium Irrigation Minister M.B. Patil had assured to send officials of his department to explain the details of the project to people in Dakshina Kannada district. “They will clear the doubts of people,” he said. On the spat between former Union Minister B. Janardhan Poojay, who opposes the project, and former Chief Minister M. Veerappa Moily, who backs it, Mr. Khader said that they were both senior leaders. “They have lot of political experience. I hope they will resolve it among themselves,” he said. -The Hindu