Karnataka - Mysore   

KIADB to acquire 5,000 acres of dry land

— PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

Losing fertile land: Widespread acquisition of farmland in Mysore has come under flak from various organisations.

MYSORE: The Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) proposes to acquire 5,000 acres of dry land on the outskirts of the city for industrial development.

This follows growing pressure from farmers and opposition from a cross-section of society against acquisition of prime farmland for industrial purposes.

A delegation, comprising KIADB officials, along with members of the Mysore Industries Association (MIA) recently inspected two sites, one of which is spread over 2,000 acres in K.R. Nagar off the highway to Hunsur and is reckoned to be suitable for industrial development. The second site of around 3,000 acres is located off H.D. Kote-Jayapura Road.

Suresh Kumar Jain, Secretary of MIA, and one of the delegates who accompanied the KIADB team scouting for the land, said that it was a surprise to find land unsuitable for agriculture in this region and pointed out that there would be no objection to its acquisition given its unsuitability for farming.

“It would also help decongest Mysore by way of dispersing industries rather than concentrating them within the city limits,” he said.

Farmers were willing to forego their land for market price which the KIADB had promised to pay and this would help in reducing the growing pressure on alienation of prime farmland with irrigation facility, he said. As an offshoot of the new development, the authorities were planning to rescind the notification to acquire 1,500 acres of farmland near Tandavapura in Nanjangud taluk. A directive would be issued to the KIADB and Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) not to convert the land for another 50 years and protect it as a green belt area. A decision in this regard was taken at a recent meeting attended by officials from the Revenue Department and the district administration, Mr. Jain said.

The KIADB’s proposed move to acquire 1,500 acres of land around Tandavapura led to wide-spread protests and even the Cauvery Neeravari Nigama had registered its opposition against the notification as the land was irrigated by Varuna canal. Farmers in Ulimavu, Arakanahundi Kempisiddanahundi and surrounding regions had launched an agitation and the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha had taken up the issue. But the new plot identified by the KIADB is classified as dry land, according to officials and is about 35 km from Mysore. The plot on H.D. Kote-Jayapura Road is closer to Tamil Nadu, and hence, preferable to establish the textile park, according to the industrialists here.

Though it is conventional to acquire dry land for establishing industries, the scenario changed in recent years as fertile land was being notified and acquired much to the chagrin of farmers’ association and progressive groups that intensified their protest against it.

As a result of relentless land acquisition, the area under agriculture in Mysore taluk alone has come down drastically by 50 per cent, according to officials in the Department of Agriculture.

There is virtually no agricultural activity in parts of Mysore where land-owning farmers have turned to sellers resulting in a massive shift in the labour profile of the region. The rise in the input cost of agriculture and reducing yield coupled with poor income have made farming an uneconomic proposition and encouraged a significant number of farmers to sell their land.

The decision to bar conversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes and maintain it as green belt was taken to prevent the entry of land sharks perceived to be acquiring agricultural land ostensibly for industrial purposes, but subsequently converting them into real estate.

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