Karnataka - Bellary   

Farmers stage protest, seek end to Bellary airport plan

Fiery zeal: Women participating in the mock funeral procession in Bellary on Friday.

BELLARY: Farmers opposing the Government’s proposal to set up a new airport in Bellary on Friday held a mock ‘funeral’ of the Government Gazette, which they say provides false and misleading information on Chaganur village, which is located 25 km from here.

This is the first among a series of agitations planned by the farmers during the second phase of the agitation against the proposal.

The Government had proposed to acquire around 1,200 acres of land in Chaganur, Siriwar and Tegginabudihal villages in Bellary taluk for the new airport. The land is said to be fertile and is irrigated by the high-level canal of the Tungabhadra reservoir. The Government has already issued a notification for land acquisition and has directed the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) to work on the order.

During the first phase of the agitation, the farmers had staged a dharna besides taking out a ‘padayatra’ from Chaganur to Bangalore to meet the Governor. They urged him to direct the Government to drop the move.

On behalf of the farmers, Mallikarjun Reddy alleged that although the land identified for acquisition was irrigated, the Government, in its Gazette, had categorised them as dry land, thereby misleading the people. He also said that there was no question of parting with the land and all farmers stood united.

The farmers, including women, took out an effigy of the Gazette in a procession and performed its ‘last rites’. They raised anti-Government slogans seeking an end to the airport plan saying several hundred families who were dependent upon agriculture in the region would suffer.

President of the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha Maruti Manpade and working president of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha Kodihalli Chandrashekar participated in the agitation.

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