Delegation of MLAs inspect Yettinahole project

Local residents allege that they are being kept in the dark

Elected representatives were cornered by residents of villages, which will be affected by the Yettinahole project, here, on Saturday. A delegation of elected representatives from Kolar, Bengaluru Rural, Tumakuru and Chikkaballapur districts visited the region to review the progress of the project, aimed at supplying water to the said districts.

The delegation to Yettinahole and Hongadahalla Hole, comprised former speaker and MLA Ramesh Kumar, Malur MLA Manjunath Gowda, Arsikere MLA Shivalingegowda, Devanhalli MLA Muniyappa, Pavagada MLA Thimmarayappa, MLCs Sathyanarayana and Narayanaswamy, and others. The officials visited the spot to review the progress of the project.

At Moganahalli, the delegation — lead by Ramesh Kumar — had to face uncomfortable questions from residents of nearby villages. A R Jagadish and D D Devaraj of Atthihalli complained that the works on the project was initiated by keeping the villagers in the dark about its effects.

“Even though it has been a year since the foundation stone for the project was laid, residents of nearby villages have no information about the location of the dam, its height, area covered by the backwaters, compensation and rehabilitation packages. Officials have not informed the villagers about the farmers, who will be losing their lands. Details of land acquisition too are unclear. Even though we are not against the drinking water scheme, we oppose the decision of the government to keep us in the dark about the project,” they said.

Responding to the queries, Chief Engineer of the project R Cheluvaraju said, about 10 acres of land will be acquired at Moganahalli. The villagers, however complained that there was no clarity in the responses provided by the officials. The meeting however, ended midway, as rains started.

Following the meeting, Ramesh Kumar targeted Cheluvaraju for exercising lethargy in completing the project. “Even though the State government has directed the officials to complete the project in three years and release water to parts of Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts, the progress has been unsatisfactory,” he said.

Less than 10 per cent of the civil works are complete, even after spending Rs 1,300 crore. All the funds has been spent on acquiring pipes, so as to benefit a few industrialists, he complained.

The chief engineer said, the works have been affected by land acquisition issues. Survey works, however, are progressing well, he added.