Forest dept gives nod to hand over 500 acres for Yettinahole project: DCM

Bengaluru, June 14: Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar today said that the Forest department has agreed to hand over 500 acres of land which is crucial to the progress of Yettinahole project.

“The Forest department has handed over 500 acres of forest land for the project. In return, the Revenue department has agreed to handover equal area of revenue land to the Forest department. The process will be completed soon,” he said after a meeting with Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda and Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre at Vikasa Soudha.

The meeting, which was also attended by officials and T B Jayachandra, Karnataka government’s Special Representative in Delhi, discussed the progress of Yettinahole and Upper Bhadra projects.

“The officials have identified challenges facing the projects and we discussed solutions in the meeting. There were bottlenecks at 20 different places over a stretch of 260 km pertaining to Forest land. We conducted a joint survey involving the Forest department and Revenue departments and the issue is now resolved. The work will start soon,” he added.

“A compensation of Rs 51 crore needs to be given to farmers in some places, of which Rs 10 crore has already been released. There is a difference between the Forest department and Revenue department over the compensation and this issue will be discussed in the Cabinet meeting,” he said.

“The balancing reservoir in Doddaballapura taluk is pending and preparations are on to start the work. In the first phase, water will be pumped to a distance of 48 km by next month. A technical committee has been formed to explore using water which is currently flowing into the sea,” he said.

Yediyurappa case
Asked about a court issuing a non-bailable warrant against former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa in a POCSO case, he said he wasn’t aware of the development.

Darshan case
Replying to a query if attempts were being made to supress the truth in the case involving actor Darshan, he said, “I don’t have much information on that case. But it is a normal practice for the police to operate outside the glare of the public in high-profile cases due to security reasons.”

Asked if any minister has attempted to influence the Darshan case, he said, “No one has spoken to me about it. I don’t have any information on this.” Asked about Kumaraswamy’s statement that he would intervene if the government tried to cover up the case, he said, “He can intervene now also, anyone can do so.”

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