Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SP)

Bangalore, Apr 21:  Nadoja Justice S R Nayak, chairman of Karnataka State Human Rights Commission, has accused the government of supporting the highhandedness and illegal activities of the mining barons from Bellary, who are involved with day-light robbery of state’s resources.

He was speaking after inaugurating an ‘Anti Land-grabbing Convention’ organized by the Democratic Advocates Centre on Tuesday April 20, at the senate hall of the Central College in the city. “None of the scientists and researchers have been able to create even a single grain of rice on their own. Food cannot be grown in thin air or sky. Land is very much necessary to grow food, which is the basic necessity of a man. But, agricultural land is now being acquired by the government for various purposes in the name of development,” he noted dejectedly.

He said that the government is planning to create new extensions in the city, named after great writers of Kannada like Kuvempu, Da Ra Bendre and Shivaram Karant, by snatching away land from the farmers. He said that these writers would have chosen to commit suicide if they were alive today. He termed the government, ministers and the officials, who have been working in tandem to take away agricultural lands at will, as being more cruel than the erstwhile British rulers.

Holding himself against taking over large tracts of agricultural lands in the name of development in the era of globalization, privatization and liberalization, he said that this casts a pall of gloom on the lives of farmers. “The government is not doing the right thing in taking over land from the farmers at Mangalore, Davangere, Bellary, Haveri, Koppal etc.,” he felt. The politicians speak about setting up industries and generating employment, without realizing that they are turning the lives of agricultural labourers and agriculturists bleak through such steps, he said. He also criticized the mining barons of Bellary for trying to snatch away land from the farmers for creating an airport, for satisfying their own egos. He predicted shortfall of foodgrains for the next generation because of this tendency.

State Raita Sangha working president, Kodihalli Chandrashekhar, also addressed the gathering. Various farmer leaders, leaders of associations protesting against acquiring agricultural lands, etc., were present.