Silvester D’ Souza
Daijiworld Media Network – Kundapur (EP)

Kundapur, Dec 28: The people affected by Varahi project led by farmers held a strong protest here on Thursday, December 26, expressing their anguish at the irregularities and corruption with regard to the Varahi project.

It is said that the project is riddled with corruption, violence by the contractor and department officials and troubles to the local farmers.

Deepak Kumar Shetty, president of Udupi district farmer’s association spoke and slammed the government for not having paid compensation to the victims whose land was acquired for the project.  He said the project is unnecessary for the farmers and it is an agreement between the contractors, government officials and the elected representatives to swindle money.  The government officials have been threatening farmers and have invited the farmers for a meeting in the guise of accepting their complaints.

“Corrupt government officials, contractors, people representatives and leaders such as these can only be punished by the almighty.  The protest started now will develop into a large scale protest in the day to come”, he said.

He urged the officials to solve the problems faced by farmers due to the project and to pay pending compensation within the next fifteen days failing which a statewide agitation will be held led by state farmer’s sangha president Kodi Halli Chandrashekara, he warned.

“As the Varahi contractors are giving money to politicians for their election expenses, the elected representatives have remained indifferent to the complaints.  There have been irregularities amounting to Rs twenty crores by throwing large boulders found while digging Varahi canal to the sea.  There should be a CBI enquiry in this respect”, he said.

Executive engineer Srikantayya spoke after listening to the grievances of farmers and said that the area covering 300 metres was acquired through the revenue department for the canal and has suitably been compensated.  “An amount of Rs 1.6 crores needs to be deposited at the revenue department.  The contractors are awarded contract subject to certain conditions. The department is not responsible if the contractors damage houses due to mistakes.  A discussion will be held with the higher authorities to enable to arrive at a solution within the next fifteen days”, he said.