Yettinahole: VJNL says can't punish officials for retrospective land change

Bengaluru: The Visvesvaraya Jala Nigam Limited (VJNL) has submitted that no individual may be held responsible for the violations of the forest rules during the execution of Yettinahole integrated drinking water project and requested for clearance to restart the project work.

The project to divert 24.01 tmc of west-flowing water from the streams of Western Ghats has seen multiple delays, leading to cost escalation with the latest revision in January 2023 putting the numbers at Rs 23,251.66 crore.

Last month, the forest advisory committee of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFF) of the union government had ordered a halt to the Yettinahole work pointing to the site inspection report of the ministry’s regional officers. The report had listed several violations, including taking up work in 266.55 acre of forest land without clearance from the ministry. VJNL submitted a detailed response defending its officials and contractors working on the project.

Referring to the FIR registered by the forest department in 2019, the state-owned company said the work was carried out as per revenue records that classified the area as forest lands.

On the violations, VJNL said the 266.45 acres was “neither classified as forest land in official records nor identified as forest on the ground” and the entire patch was agricultural farmland “supported by valid revenue records”.

The lands were under possession and cultivation of local farmers and FIR was booked for only 0.04 ha (0.09 acre) in Ramadevara range.

“No individual may be held personally responsible for the non-willful violation that occurred during the execution of the Yettinahole project, which was carried out on revenue land, now retrospectively classified as forest land. Hence, it is requested not to initiate any action against either individual or department,” it said.

Bridges for elephants

VJNL promised to submit once again a detailed wildlife mitigation plan based on discussions with the deputy conservator of forests, Hassan division.

The new plan includes fencing on both sides of the canal with crossovers at regular intervals based on the elephant corridor map.

Responding to the suggestion to explore tunnelling, instead of open canal system, the VJNL executive engineer said the soil and rock strata lack the structural stability necessary for the safe construction of a tunnel. It said precautionary measures have been taken to prevent soil erosion.