Karnataka   

Chamalapura: activists want seers to lead stir

— PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

Facing threat: Environmentalists fear the green valley surrounding Chamalapura will be devastated if the coal-fired power plant is established there.

MYSORE: The agitation against the proposed coal-fired thermal power plant at Chamalapura is set to gain momentum after a lull, following conflicting signals from the Government on the status of the project.

At a meeting convened by the Association of Concerned and Informed Citizens of Mysore (ACICM) here on Sunday, it was decided to pressurise the seers of Suttur Math and Ganapati Sachchidananda Ashram to lead the agitation.

Protests would be held in front of the residences of all elected representatives on August 16 and 17 to urge them to come out against the power project.

M. Lakshman, convener of ACICM, said a few seers, including Vishvesha Tirtha of Pejawar Math, had supported the agitation against the Tadadi project in the Western Ghats. “We want the Suttur and Ganapati ashram seers, who have political clout, to take a similar stand,” Mr. Lakshman added. The activists would meet Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on September 25 and apprise him of the negative impact of the project on Nagarahole, a national park now named after Rajiv Gandhi.

The ACICM would call for “Mysore bandh” and Ministers visiting the city will be gheraoed.

The 1,000 MW power project is proposed to be established at Chamalapura in H.D. Kote taluk and is 25 km from Mysore.

It involves acquisition of nearly 3,000 acres of prime agricultural land, displacement of 13,000 farmers, while millions of tonnes of coal will have to be supplied from the coal fields of Orissa by a new railway line that has to be linked between Mysore and Chamalapura.

The project has been opposed on environmental and socio-economic grounds. What has upset the activists and the public is the Government’s reluctance to disband the project.

Even the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC), after a series of public hearings, concluded that the project had to be “re-considered”.

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