The State president of Raita Sena Karnataka Veeresh C. Sobaradmath Swami has alleged that both the State and Union governments were least bothered about expediting the process to clear the hurdles for the implementation of the Kalasa Banduri Nala Project and the leaders from the State too were not concerned about the long pending issue.
Addressing presspersons in Hubballi on Saturday, Mr. Sobaradmath said that while the Union government had taken measures that would further delay the project, the State government too seemed little concerned about the project.
“According to the reply (dated January 5) given by Deputy Inspector General of Forests and Central Public Information Officer Mahesh Kumar Shambu to my letter, the State government had failed to provide clarifications to the queries raised by the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change. According to the reply, the Ministry had sent three letters dated 30/1/2023, 07/09/2023 and 29/09/23 seeking clarifications on certain aspects of proposals from Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Limited and till date no reply has been given to the queries raised. Instead, the government had only resubmitted the proposal,” he said.
Meanwhile, a team from Central Wildlife Board is expected to visit the proposed project area in the State pertaining to Kalasa Banduri Nala Project. Mr. Sobaradmath said that the team was expected to visit the State on January 8 and Raita Sena would meet the members and submit documents pertaining to some of the issues pertaining to the project so as to clear the doubts.
He also said that his organisation would also write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah on the need to resolve the pending issues at the earliest so as to facilitate implementation of the project.
Threat received
Mr. Sobaradmath said that as he was involved in exposing some of the corrupt practices of officials and elected representatives, he had received threat calls and recently had even received a threat message sent through an audio clip on WhatsApp. He said he urged the State government to act swiftly against those threatening him and provide him requisite security.
