Bengaluru: A city-based advocate has filed a PIL before the Karnataka High Court against the Isha Foundation's 'Cauvery Calling' campaign led by its founder Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.
The advocate, A.V. Amarnathan, states that the campaign calls for planting of trees across the Cauvery river from Talacauvery to Tiruvarur. It aims to raise 253 crore plants for which it is collecting Rs 42 per tree, which sums up to Rs 10,626 crore.
The collection of money in thousands of crores is disturbing. “It is a private organisation, and claims to have studied the Cauvery basin with the project Cauvery Calling. It has given the report to the state government, which so far has not given any approval," the PIL states, adding that no private organisation is permitted to carry out any work on government land without the government's approval. The petitioner submits that Satya Sai Baba had taken up a project of bringing drinking water from Andhra Pradesh to Chennai without taking money from the public.
It prays for directions to the foundation to stop collecting funds from the public along with directions to the state to look into the Cauvery Calling campaign to take appropriate steps.
The case was posted to September 17 for preliminary hearing.
