Mysuru:  The Karnataka High Court has not issued a stay to the proposed Railway and Highway projects in Kodagu but has only directed the State Additional Advocate General and Special Public Prosecutor to maintain status quo pending disposal of the petitions filed by Coorg Wildlife Society against the destructive projects.

The Coorg Wildlife Society filed petitions in the HC questioning implementation of Railway lines between Thalassery-Periyapatna and Mysuru and Mysuru-Kushalnagar-Madikeri and Mangaluru and also the widening of National Highway 275 that passes through Kodagu from Mysuru via Kushalnagar, Suntikoppa and Madikeri to reach Sampaje in Dakshina Kannada.

Reacting to reports that the High Court has granted a stay on the petitions, Coorg Wildlife Society President K.C. Biddappa said that the Court has only asked the State Additional Advocate General to maintain status quo till further notice and did not grant a stay.

Meanwhile, former President of Coorg Wildlife Society Col. C.P. Muthanna has said that he had spoken to the High Court advocate and was informed that the oral direction given by the HC was as good as a stay order and hence he had used the words ‘stay order.’

The project implementing authorities cannot move even a brick till the case is disposed of or till further notice as told to the State Additional Advocate General and Special Public Prosecutor by the High Court.

However, Biddappa’s contention is that since the news of ‘status quo’ had already appeared in January this year where was the need for repeating the same news with a new phrase ‘stay order’?