Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network – Bantwal (EP)
Bantwal, Oct 17: Officials of the central and state forest department and Starlite Company have conducted inspection of Udupi – Kasargod forest land where 400 KV electric cables will run. Local farmers expressed their anguish when the officials arrived at Veerakamba.
Farmers, elected representatives of Veerakamba gram panchayat, leaders of state Raitha Sangha Hasiru Sene and Vitla Raitha Samithi members held discussions with the officials at the Bantwal forest office.
Hasiru Sene state secretary Manohar Shetty said that the deputy commissioner has sacrificed the land of farmers at several places in the district in the name of development. “We have already filed a case in the court in this connection. The MLA and MP should not be allowed to implement the project like in Coorg,” he said.
Vitla Raitha Horata Samithi president Rajiv Gowda said that he has been campaigning against the project for the last 15 months. “They have eyed the agricultural land of poor farmers,” he said.
AIGF Anjan of the forest department, Bengaluru said that he will forward the request of people to the government. The farmers submitted their memorandum to Anjan and DCF Dinesh Kumar Y K.
Mangaluru assistant conservator of forest N Subrahmanya Rao, Bantwal zone forest officer Rajesh Baligar, social zone forest officer Ravikumar, Veerakamba gram panchayat president Dinesh, vice president Sheela Nirmala Veigas, members Janardhan Poojary, Raghu Poojary, Abdul Rehman, Jayaprasad, Sandeep, forest department staff Preetham, S Shobit, Dayanand, Ranjita and others were present.
Local farmers expressed their anger when the officials visited Kombila, Anantadi and warned them not to come to them.