The Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha and the Hasiru Sene have demanded compensation at market rates for farmers losing land for the proposed 65-km peripheral ring road (PRR) phase 1.
Sangha and sene president Kodihalli Chandrashekhar told presspersons in Bangalore on Friday the government’s decision to offer 40 per cent of the developed land or its market price is nothing but chicanery.
He said: “The PRR is a toll road and land acquired for its formation would not be utilised for any other public utility purpose such as parks and so on. The acquisition is for commercial purposes and hence the farmers are entitled to market price for all the land.”
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The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has proposed to sell house sites at Kempegowda Layout at Rs. 1,800 per sq ft. The same rate should apply to calculate compensation to farmers, and for each acre (43,560 sq ft) the payment should be Rs. 7.84 crore an acre, he said.
Road width reduced
Mr. Chandrashekhar accused the government of intentionally reducing the width of the proposed PRR from 100 m to 70 m to deny money payable to farmers. Now this remaining 30-m strip of acquired land was proposed to be given to farmers as compensation, and this was nothing but free of cost acquisition for the government.
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Stating that farmers were not against development, Mr. Chandrashekhar said the point was not to cheat them and demanded immediate intervention of the Chief Minister in this regard.