KIADB to acquire 1,200 acres for SEZ near Bangalore

Staff Reporter

Farmers protest against acquisition bid

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The area is near the international airport at Devanahalli
State JD(U) president B. Somashekar says move is illegal
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bangalore: A large number of mostly Dalit and Other Backward Class
farmers with smallholdings of one or two acres in Bandikodigepalya,
Shingahalli, Arebinnamangala and Gollahalli, near the Bangalore
International Airport coming up at Devanahalli, may lose their land to
the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB), which is
acquiring land for a special economic zone (SEZ). The 1,209 acres of
land targeted for acquisition is worth thousands of crores of rupees and
the farmers have resolved to protest against the acquisition.

The farmers, who gathered at Shingahalli under the banner of the local
Janata Dal (United) unit on Tuesday, expressed their anger at the notice
issued to acquire land in Arebinnamangala (483 acres), Shingahalli (355
acres), B.K. Palya (294 acres) and Gollahalli (75 acres) for the SEZ and
raised slogans demanding that the acquisition proceedings be withdrawn.

Addressing the farmers, the State JD(U) president B. Somashekar alleged
that the State Government was allowing the KIADB to acquire agricultural
land sanctioned to Dalits and others under the Karnataka Land Reforms
Act by the J.H. Patel government in which he was the Revenue Minister.
Acquiring such land and handing it over to information technology
biotechnology and other companies was in violation of both Union and
State Government rules. Moreover, the mandatory period of 15 years
before Dalits could sell land given to them by the Government was not
over, he said.

Low price

He said the Revenue Department had fixed the price of the land in
question at Rs. 200 a sq. ft. Therefore, one acre of agricultural land
was worth Rs. 88 lakh, but the KIADB was giving farmers a paltry sum of
Rs. 9.40 lakh an acre. How could the Government allow such a fraud, he
asked. Apart from this, the exchequer would lose around Rs. 17 lakh an
acre in terms of exemption from stamp duty, commercial tax, BDA charges,
electricity and conversion costs, he said.

The JD(U) leader alleged that entrepreneurs to whom the land would be
allotted in the SEZ would later make real-estate deals by re-allotting a
part of the land to others at exorbitant rates.

Already 25,000 acres of land had been acquired around Bangalore, and
another 25,000 acres was likely to be acquired for industrial townships,
which his party would not permit, he said. Farmers should be allowed to
enter into joint ventures with developers of SEZs instead of giving up
their land, he said.

Venkatesh, former chairman of the Shingahalli gram panchayat, D.S. Gowda
of B.K. Palya, B. Anjanappa of Kolipura, Narasimhaiah of Arebinnamangala
and R.N. Venkata Swamy of the Shingahalli Farmers Struggle Committee
alleged that some leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress
and the Janata Dal (S), including a minister and an MLA, had managed to
prevent land belonging to them and their relatives from being acquired.

Stir threatened

Mr. Somashekar alleged that the KIADB and the Bangalore Development
Authority had become real-estate agents. He urged the Government not to
acquire agricultural land, particularly in a 100-km radius around
Bangalore. He warned that party workers and farmers would court arrest
if the Government went ahead with the acquisition proceedings.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/25/stories/2006102509770400.htm