BENGALURU: Will you put an end to the matter by issuing a public notice that ‘Cauvery Calling’ is not government’s project?” This is the specific question put forth by the Karnataka High Court before the state government while hearing a PIL, which was later converted into suo motu petition, questioning the Cauvery Calling project.
A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty orally observed that the matter will come to an end if the state government takes a clear stand and such a public notice is published, as the Isha Foundation and Isha Outreach are projecting that they are implementing the government project.
This was after the government advocate submitted that Cauvery Calling was not the government’s project. However, the promoter of the project, Isha Foundation, was allowed to mobilise farmers and enrol them into Krishi Aranya Protsaha Yojane launched by the state government in 2011.Questioning the rationale behind collecting Rs 42 per sapling from the public as part of the campaign by the foundation, the petitioner asked the court to issue directions to stop the collection.
According to the petitioner, the foundation plans to plant 253 crore saplings to save the Cauvery basin. If Rs 42 is collected per sapling, the total amount will be Rs 10,626 crore. The state cannot be quiet about allowing the foundation to collect such a huge amount to do work on government land, he claimed.