Farmers to launch drive against land grab

MYSORE: Farmers from across the state have decided to launch a united struggle against the government and the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board to forcibly acquire land.In a meeting held at the Agriculture and Marketing Training Institute on Sunday, they alleged that the KIADB has become a land bank by indiscriminately notifying fertile land. Though a few organisations and farmers succeeded in scuttling the efforts of the government to acquire land, there is a need to put up a united show against the anti-farmer policies, they said.Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha general secretary Nagendra accused the KIADB of violating the government regulations and turning into puppets of the real estate mafia by notifying land just by looking at the revenue department maps. He said that there are villages, tanks and layouts situated around the earmarked land. Though around two lakh acres has been acquired, many have not applied for land to start industries and a majority of the allottees have not set up industries. He alleged that a majority of them have diverted land for other than the specified purpose.Nagendra exhorted the public to join the stir as acquisition of land will have an adverse impact on food security. He appealed to farmers and their families not to be carried away by the KIADB assurances. Stressing the need to chalk out a plan for a model stir in the country, Shantha Swamy of Gadag mutt said that they had stopped POSCO from looting resources in Gadag.Admitting that the farmers continue to live in fear, he said that POSCO wanted to enter and execute its project through Koppal district. Ramesh from Bagalkot accused Industries Minister Nirani of acquiring land to set up sugar factories.Vijaykumar Hegde of Udupi said that the government has planned projects that do not suit a nuclear power plant.He said that the thermal power plant has affected the flora and fauna in hundreds of acres and feared that this would put the people in coastal and western ghats in trouble. Activist Surendra Kwalagi, Basavaraju, Sheera Sagar and others also spoke.