Bangalore : 'Nice' Protest : Trainload of Ryots Leave for Delhi
Bangalore, March 7 (DHNS): On the hot Sunday afternoon, Bangalore City Railway Station resounded with slogans against NICE and its promoter Ashok Kheny as a special train carrying supporters of the Janata Dal(S), CPI (M), Dalit Sangharsh Samiti and other organisations steamed out of the station for Delhi where they would be staging a protest against alleged irregularities in land allotment for the BMIC.
The train’s bogies were festooned with flags of the parties and farmers and their family members peered through the windows to catch a glimpse of H D Deve Gowda and H D Kumaraswamy taking stock of the arrangements for the farmers’ departure to the nation’s Capital. The special train carrying 1,584 farmers to Delhi was flagged off by Gowda and his sons on Sunday from Bangalore. They will be staging a dharna on March 11 and 12 to draw the attention of Parliament and the Centre on the NICE issue.
Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy are scheduled to leave for Delhi on Sunday night or Monday morning.
Special train
JD(S) sources said the 20-bogie special train hired by the party is scheduled to reach Delhi on Tuesday morning and will return after four days. Groceries for the protestors including rice, sugar, jowar, ragi and milk are being carried by the train. Railway authorities said JD(S) managed to get the train by paying lakhs of rupees and by lobbying with the Railways over the past three weeks.
Optimism
Addressing reporters at the railway station, Kumaraswamy said he was optimistic of getting ‘justice’ by staging the agitation. After stating the rally, rhe farmers will present a memorandum to the President and Prime Minister explaining their case against NICE. The agitators will also speak to various party leaders at the national level to explain the factual position on land acquisition and how farmers were forced to part with their land for the road project, he added.
Deve Gowda said that he would request Speaker Meira Kumar to allow him to raise the BMIC issue in Lok Sabha.