Bellary: Farmers Draw Carts to Register Protest Against Airport Construction
The Hindu
Bellary, Jul 25: Farmers of Chaganur and Siriwar on Friday drew bullock carts to register their protest against the Government move to acquire their fertile and irrigated land for construction of Bellary airport.
The “Raitha bandi jatha” was held as part of the ongoing agitation by the farmers against the move to acquire around 1,200 acres of fertile and irrigated land on which they have been raising two crops a year, and to draw the attention of the Government and the public to the plight they will have to face if their land, their only source of livelihood, is acquired for the airport project.
A group of farmers came from the two villages on 18 bullock carts up to Taranath Ayurveda College, where they untied the bullocks and started drawing the carts themselves. The jatha passed through the main streets of the city before reaching the Deputy Commissioner’s office, where the farmers staged a dharna.
Earlier this month, the farmers had performed “urulu seve” (rolling on the road), covering a distance of nearly 30 km, to register their protest against the Government move.
Addressing presspersons, Mallikarjun Reddy, who led the protest, expressed concern over the “failure” on the part of the Government and Ministers to respond to the agitation which is going on for the past seven months.
“People at the helm of the affairs in the Government, including the Chief Minister, and leaders of Opposition parties, seem to have no concern towards the plight of farmers. Even after submitting several memoranda to all concerned, none had spoken to the farmers. The land acquisition issue has not come up for discussion in the Assembly,” he said and termed it “unfortunate”.
Mr. Reddy said that to bring pressure on leaders of Opposition parties to raise the issue in the Assembly, a relay fast was launched on Friday, and it would be on till the ongoing Assembly session ends.
Desai Jadiyappa of the district unit of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha; Somashekar, Devadas and Shantakumari of Socialist Unity Centre of India; K. Nagabhushan Rao of Communist Party of India; V.S. Shivashankar of Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha and M.N. Manjula of All India Samskrutika Sanghatane were among those who participated in the jatha with the farmers.