Move to acquire land opposed

The State Government's latest move to acquire 2,100 acres of land for the proposed Centre-sponsored IT Investment Region (ITIR), near Bengaluru International Airport, has sparked a controversy.

The Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) is acquiring fertile agricultural land, and land falling in the Arkavathi basin, both in contravention of the guidelines of the Centre and the State-level Empowered Committee for the ITIR project headed by the Chief Minister.

The Union Government, in a gazette notification on ITIR projects issued on May 28, 2008, has clearly said that State governments should acquire “preferably non-agricultural land” for such projects. Secondly, the State-level Empowered Committee for ITIR, at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister B.S. Yedyurappa on April 23, 2010, decided to exclude from acquisition “the Arkavathi river and adjoining fertile lands, tanks and tank-beds, garden lands and fertile lands as per RTC, grazing fields, gram thana area, quarries and burial grounds”.

According to sources in the Bangalore Rural district administration, a chunk of the 2,100 acres that is being acquired is cultivated fertile land, most of it situated in the Arkavathi basin. Grapes, banana and potato are just some of the crops cultivated on the land. Besides, the Government has not renewed the licences of quarries in these villages on the grounds that they were situated in the Arkavathi basin, said K.S. Harish, Bangalore Rural district president, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha. When contacted, KIADB Chief Executive Officer T. Sham Bhat told The Hindu that there were reports that the land to be acquired falls in the Arkavathi basin, although the KIADB was yet to get a “clear picture of it”.

The State Government, through a notification issued on June 9, declared 2,100 acres in seven villages as “industrial area” and the KIADB has issued a preliminary notification for land acquisition.

Meanwhile, since August 16, hundreds of farmers from these villages have been filing their objections before the KIADB's Special Land Acquisition Officer, Shivaprasad, opposing the land acquisition.

( The Hindu)