DHNS
Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje

Mangalore Dec 20: Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha President Kodihalli Chandrashekar fumed over the inefficiency of the elected representatives to make their voices heard at the parliament to raise the issues of the problems of the farmers and warned the bureaucrats and other officials of shameful consequences if they come to the farmers as middlemen to facilitate Special Economic Zone in future.

Addressing a rally of the farmers and supporting organisations at Urwa Market maidan here on Wednesday, Mr Chandrashekar warned the Governor that farmers will gherao Raj Bhavan if he still does not open his eyes towards the problems of the farmers.

Calling upon the farmers to be united and to take the local protest to another level and staging a nationwide protest, he said that the farmers need to stand united, failing which the 'loafers' called politicians will sell their motherland to capitalists to earn more money.

He cautioned the farmers not to fall prey to the luring proposals as once they hand over their land to the capitalists, there is no way that they can regain it as the land mafia and politicians involved will hike the price of the land many folds and sell it at unaffordable prices.

Bureaucrats beware

He openly said that in future if anybody comes to hold survey or to propogate about the SEZ and PCPIR, no mater if it is the Deputy Commissioner, Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board officers or the SEZ officials, they will regret their visit.

Flaying the local representatives, he said that these so called people's representatives are making way for land mafia facilitating land acquisition.

Providing the background of the proposed land acquisitions to be held in the State, he said that as per the records, 74,000 acres are proposed to be acquired in undivided Dakshina Kannada district while the people are informed only about the 2000 acres.

In Bangalore 38 villages will be acquired for SEZ and 34 acres for township in Nandanagudi area, in Tumkur another 2,500 acres has been identified for acquisition along with the 2,500 acres for international airport in Devanhalli, another 2,500 acres in Hassan and 4,000 acres in Hospet-Koppal region.

"These lands are not Sonia Gandhi or Vajpayee or Deve Gowda's property that they sell it off to someone at their disposal. It is our land, which has been handed over to us by our ancestors and nobody other than us have right on this land,” added.

Season for politicians

Mr Chandrashekar asked the farmers gathered at the maidan if they have seen the politicians from the region making a hue and cry in the parliament to get justice to them. 'No' came the answer unanimously from the crowd.

He said that the politicians will soon come at their doorstep as the 'suggi' season (harvest) has started. "The elections are fast approaching and now they will come to you. This time do not pay any attention to them, instead shun them away,” he said.

Addressing the gathering Sandeepani Sadhanaashram Kemaaru pontiff Eshavittaldas Swami called upon the people to wake up now before it is too late and said that villages represent our culture and if these lands in the villages are lost, it is the lose of culture.

Decisions

The meet decided that the farmers and farm workers must be included in the 6th pay commission and to demand for legal action against the KIADB for violating the Apex court order.

It was also demanded to stop import of Genetically Modified crops to ensure food security and integrity in the nation, withdraw SEZ and allied projects in the region, demand the MSEZ to denotify the agriculture land immediately, and to demand the policy makers to get the approval from the local governing body before bringing in policies that will affect the farming or farm land in anyways.