Devanahalli farmers reject govt’s proposal on land acquisition and set to embark on a broad-based struggle from today

The Karnataka government appears to be gripped by one more challenge as the 1,193-day protest by farmers of a few villages in Devanahalli taluk against land acquisition, which is said to be one of the longest farmers’ protest in Karnataka, is now set to snowball into a State-wide struggle. This came even as Large and Medium Industries Minister M.B. Patil sought to pacify them by stating that acquisition in three villages would be dropped, which the protesters rejected.

As many as 42 various organisations from the State are set to participate in the ‘Devanahalli Chalo’ protest on Wednesday, marking the launch of a broad-based and more intensified struggle against the Congress government, demanding a complete halt to the process of acquiring 1,777 acres of land by the KIADB in Channarayapatna of Devanahalli taluk for the proposed hi-tech Defence and Aerospace Park.

Since 2022

These farmers, who have been protesting under the banner ‘KIADB Land Acquisition Resistance Struggle Committee of Channarayapatna’ since April 4, 2022, on Tuesday rejected the government’s fresh proposal to exclude only 495 acres of land belonging to three villages in Channarayapatna hobli from the acquisition process.

The farmers are demanding that the acquisition process for the entire parcel of 1,777 acres from eight villages should be shelved.

As part of efforts to convince the farmers to end their protest, Mr. Patil held a meeting with local MLA and Minister K.H. Muniyappa in Bengaluru on Tuesday and announced that 495 acres of land belonging to three villages in Channarayapatna hobli have been excluded from acquisition for the proposed park. He further stated that it has also been decided not to acquire any land from this hobli in future for industrial purposes.

In light of this decision, the Minister appealed to the farmers who were protesting against the acquisition to call off their agitation.

Govt. stand

He made it clear that acquisition of the remaining 1,232 acres will proceed unchanged, covering 10 villages — Palya, Haraluru, Polanahalli, Gokare Bachchenahalli, Nalluru, Mallepura, Nallappanahalli, Cheemachanahalli, Muddenahalli, and Hadayala.

While compensation for the acquired land will be determined by the Deputy Commissioner of the district, land losers will have the option to receive 10,771 square feet of developed land per acre, which they can use for commercial purposes, the Minister said.

“We must strike a balance between industrial growth and agricultural welfare,” Mr. Patil said, while appealing to farmers to end their protest.

However, farmers refused to accept this suggestion and insisted that the entire parcel of land should be excluded from acquisition.

J.M. Veerasangaiah, State working president of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, which has expressed its support to the ‘Devanahalli Chalo’ protest as well as the broad-based struggle, accused the Congress government of going back on the promise made to the protesting farmers before Assembly polls.

“Several Congress leaders including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah (who was then the Opposition leader) had then promised to completely halt the land acquisition process that had been taken up by the erstwhile BJP regime. But now they are not sticking to their promise,” he told The Hindu.

Hub of vegetables

Pointing out that the land proposed for acquisition is a fertile one that has become a prominent hub for cultivation of vegetables, greens, and fruits, he wondered if it was scientifically right to take away such a fertile land from farmers.

Tara Rao, governing council member of Eddelu Karnataka, a progressive organisation, too expressed concern over the alleged apathy of the government towards the plight of farmers.

The groups that have offered support to the broad-based struggle include Samyukta Horata Karnataka, which is a co-ordination committee of various progressive organisations.