The Hindu

• Former MLA meets Deputy Commissioner
• Maheshwar Rao urged not to accept demands of detractors
• New faction claims support of 80 per cent of people

Mangalore, Mar 8: In a sudden turn of events, a group of people met the Deputy Commissioner M. Maheshwar Rao here on Friday and offered to sell their lands to Mangalore Special Economic Zone Ltd. Former MLA from Surathkal Vijay Kumar Shetty represented the group.

The group comprised of people from Permude, Thenka Ekkaru, Delantha Bettu and Kuthethoor villages where the lands have been notified for the 2,035-acre land for phase-II of the project.

Speaking to presspersons after the meeting with Mr. Rao, former MLA Mr. Vijay Kumar said: “I have been asked to meet the Deputy Commissioner by the people. I will never come in the way of development.”

When asked why he had chosen to represent a group ahead of the thousands of people agitating against the project, he refused to comment.

Demands

Mr. Rao and Mr. Vijay Kumar chose to keep the demands of the group a secret. However, sources from within the breakaway faction told The Hindu that they were demanding Rs. 35 lakh an acre, in addition to two jobs for every displaced family.

At present, the dry lands are being acquired at Rs. 8 lakh an acre and wet land at Rs. 8.5 lakh an acre. The rehabilitation and resettlement package provides for one job for every displaced family.

The group has demanded that the rehabilitation colony should be near their villages and not in Kulai, as planned.

Mr. Rao is said to have expressed doubts over meeting the demands related to the rehabilitation colony.

The move comes only a day after the Krishi Bhoomi Samiti (KBS) celebrated the recommendations of a central committee of experts to stall the phase-II of MSEZ.

Divide and rule

Members of the KBS, who learnt about this meeting, tried to troop into the meeting while it was in progress. They entered the meeting room, saying: “We are also farmers and this is a public meeting.” Mr. Rao, however, asked them to leave and met them, separately, later.

During their meeting, the president of KBSS, Madhukar Amin, told Mr. Rao that he should thwart the attempts by people to create a wedge in the movement. Members of KBS urged Mr. Rao to avoid a situation that could become volatile and create feuds between people of the same village.

Meanwhile, members of the breakaway faction have claimed that the KBS was a union formed to allow the land-losers to collectively bargain for a suitable rehabilitation package. “Instead, they have turned into an anti-SEZ movement,” a member of the faction charged. The members of the new faction claimed that they had the support of 80 per cent of the people in the notified villages. However, another member said that people, who together owned about 300 acres of land, formed the breakaway faction.