Tension prevailed for a few hours at Gorur village of Magadi taluk when the Ramanagaram district administration officials, accompanied by police personnel, reached the village for the survey of 32 acres where a waste processing unit is proposed to be set up.
It is said that the surveyors reached the village around 6 a.m. When a few villagers got to know of the development, they informed the head of the Bande Math. By around 7 a.m., hundreds of people accompanied by the monk of Bande Math reached the spot and opposed the survey work.
Fearing that the situation could soon spiral out of control, the police personnel detained the monk. However, this angered the locals further, who gheraoed the district officials and surveyors and pelted stones at the government vehicles. A stray stone hit a surveyor in the head and the officials quickly tried to rush him to a hospital in an ambulance. The irate villagers pelted stones at the ambulance as well, prompting the police personnel to lathi charge the protesting villagers.
"We do not want our village to become another Mandur. Our village is under the catchment area of the Kumudvathi river, which ultimately also feeds the Tippagondanahalli reservoir," a villager remarked.
This is not the first time that the local communities are opposing the proposal to set up a waste processing unit in the village there. On October 30, the district administration had attempted to survey the site where the processing unit is proposed. The survey was not completed as the local communities had staged a protest then as well. Elected representatives of the area, including Nelamangala MLA K. Srinivas Murthy and members of the gram, taluk and zilla panchayat, are also opposed to the setting up of the unit at Gorur.
