BICHOLIM: The nine Mhadei agitators, who were detained by the police, have demanded with the Central government to immediately withdraw the Environment Clearance (EC) given to the Karnataka government.
On Wednesday, nine persons including Hrudainath Shirodkar, Prajal Sakhardande, Santoshkumar Sawant, Abhilash Velingkar, Jagdish Bhobe, Rajan Ghate, Durgadas Kamat, Ravi Harmalkar and Mahesh Mhambre were detained at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium, Taleigao Plateau, the IFFI inaugural venue, and were brought to Bicholim Police Station. At around 7.30 pm, all the detainees were released.
Addressing a press conference, Progressive Front President Hrudainath Shirodkar demanded that the letter given by the Central government regarding EC to Mhadei issue should be revoked.
“We had a meeting with Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC)Prakash Javdekar. He told us that a committee is formed and has asked for 15 days time to study the matter. He wanted us to withdraw the agitation but we demanded that the letter given to Karnataka should be immediately withdrawn and continued with our agitation. So the police detained us,” Shirodkar stated.
Durgadas Kamat stated that that Karnataka government in a letter stated that it is River Valley and Hydro Electric Project but not drinking valley project.
“The earlier letter submitted by the Karnataka government on April 26 was Fraudulent so we demanded with the Central government to immediately withdraw the letter,” Kamat stated.
