Bidadi (Karnataka) [India], June 21 (ANI): Amid the ongoing political row over the Bidadi township project in Karnataka, Youth Wing president of JD(S) Nikhil Kumaraswamy held a padayatra in Bidadi against the state government over land acquisition for the township.
Speaking to reporters, Kumaraswamy said, “The entire Janata Dal (Secular) party is here today…even a small worker of the party is participating today. Overall, we have come prepared to stand with and fight for the farmers of 26 villages, including Byramangala and Kanchugaranahalli, to protect their land with great clarity.”
Earlier, state BJP president BY Vijayendra claimed that 80 per cent of farmers are against the township and are not willing to give up their land after the Karnataka government’s final notification to acquire nearly 500 acres for the proposed Greater Bengaluru Integrated Township (GBIT) near Bidadi.
He urged Chief Minister D K Shivakumar not to push farmers to give away their land, claiming that farmers have been “threatened by goondas” to do so.
Meanwhile, Shivakumar said the notification for the project was issued by Kumaraswamy and later continued by BS Yediyurappa. “The farmers of Bidadi are good people. They are being misled. Isn’t Kumaraswamy the father of this project? He has admitted it himself,” the Chief Minister said.
“We are only taking it forward. We are not doing anything new. Who acquired land for the Bidadi industrial area? In the existing 9,000 acres, didn’t former BJP CM Jagadish Shettar acquire 1,000 acres?” he asked.
The row erupted in May after Shivakumar accepted a challenge from Union Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy for a public debate regarding the Bidadi township project. The Janata Dal (Secular) party opposed the development, alleging it is driven by a land mafia operating under political patronage.
In response, Shivakumar defended the project by stating that the initial notification was issued during Kumaraswamy’s own tenure as Chief Minister and noted that the courts refused to halt the development.
Following a meeting with local farmers, Shivakumar announced that compensation payments would begin in the first week of June. He claimed that approximately eighty per cent of the farmers have consented to the project and are eager for their payments, though they have also requested residential plots in addition to monetary settlements.
The political tension escalated further as former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda reportedly wrote to Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi about the alleged land mafia.
Shivakumar dismissed these letters, questioning why the veteran leader was contacting opposition figures instead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while also criticising the rising prices of steel under the leadership of Kumaraswamy, who is the Union minister for heavy industries. (ANI)
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