Udupi: Villagers gherao officials, stop survey of Nandikur-Padoor cabling work
Inchara Udupi
Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (EP)
Udupi, Nov 12: The villagers of Yellur on Tuesday November 12 gheraoed contractors and workers who they said had come to conduct a secret survey for drawing high tension electric cables from Nandikur to Padoor for Padoor crude oil collection unit.
The Jana Jagruti Samiti and a large group of villagers stopped the contractors and the workers who had arrived for survey work in a private property in Irandadi at Yellur with no prior intimation.
It is alleged that the survey team cut some trees by entering private properties without informing the people concerned and without paying them any compensation. The villagers of Kalathur, Yellur and Belapu gram panchayat limits who were angry at the surveyors blocked their vehicles.
Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake was returning after finishing some official work when the villagers blocked the his vehicle and urged him to control the contractors. The minister who said that he has no information regarding the survey work, warned the survey officials not to indulge in survey work without getting approval from the locals.
"The high tension cabling will disturb hundreds of acres of fertile agricultural land. It is not proper to forcibly conduct survey. If this continues, large scale protests will be inevitable," warned district JD(S) president Deviprasad Shetty.
"The contractors are misusing the generosity of farmers and villagers and trying to acquire the land by inducing greed in them," he added. The protestors warned that they are prepared to fight against Mir Sadiq who heads the contractors' team.
Zilla panchayat member Arun Shetty Padooru, Udupi district JD(S) president Deviprasad Shetty Kuthyaru, gram panchayat president Pravin Kumar Gurme, Kalathur janajagruthi committee convener Lawrence Fernandes, Kuthyaru former gram panchayat president Nithyananda Shetty Belapu, former Belapu gram panchayat vice president Niranjan Shetty, former Kaup gram panchayat president Yogish Rai, Jagadish Arasa of Janajagruti committee, Ranganatha Shetty Kalathur, Shivananda Kotian, Dhiraj Shetty, Anil Kumar and hundreds of villagers participated in the protest.