A large number of farmers, who gave up their land for the Peripheral and Link Road under the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP) took out a protest march here on Wednesday. They registered their protest against the delay in allotting them residential plots as promised as part of the compensation.
Farmers who lost their land to BMICP were promised a residential plot in one of the five townships being developed along the corridor in addition to the monetary compensation. For every acre of land acquired, the land owners were promised 40ft X 60ft plot each and for owners of land that measured less than an acre, 30ft X 40ft site was promised.
An estimated 3,000 acres had been acquired for the Peripheral Ring Road.
The land acquired for the project was notified by Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) in 1998. Compensation in the range of Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 7 lakh an acre was provided to all land-losers in 2004. However, they are yet to be allotted residential plots.
“NICE blames the State government for not giving its nod without which they cannot allot sites. All the State governments right from the then H.D. Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal government, which started the project, to the present regime have been paying only lip service to farmers. But, they have not compensated us adequately,” rued Rudresh, a resident of Somapura, who led the protest.
The farmers have decided to stage an indefinite protest in front of the Chief Minister’s residence, if the State government did not ensure that all land-losers are allotted residential plots within a fortnight.
Traffic chaosThe protest march from Mahatma Gandhi statue near in Mayura Circle to Freedom Park put the traffic on Seshadri Road out of gear for almost an hour. The protesters held rasta-roko near Mahatma Gandhi statue thus affecting movement of traffic on Race Course Road and Seshadri Road.
