The Bharatiya Janata Party has opposed the installation of the Jesus Christ statue alleging that it was coming up on ‘gomala’ land illegally allotted to the Harobele Kapala Betta Development Trust.
The contention is that not enough gomala or grazing land is reserved for cattle in the village.
The BJP leaders have alleged that for the 1,828 head of cattle in the village, 5,48 acres have to be reserved for gomala, while there is only 209.22 acres available. Despite this, 10 acres have been allotted to the trust.
However, a copy of the allotment order available with The Hindu states that apart from the 209.22 acres available in survey no. 283, there is gomala land available in other parcels both in and around Harobele village totalling to 1,219 acres.
The other allegation that the trust has been facing is that it had begun work atop the Kapalabetta much before it officially began.
“Our allotment is almost two years old and we did begin work a few months ago, taking all adequate permissions. They have alleged that we have laid private roads. But the road was laid by the State government to build a pump house for the Cauvery Stage V water supply project in the area,” said Kiran Kumar, secretary of the trust.
A probe report by the tahsildar is still awaited.
