Protesters demanding grant of land for people who lost their land for the Sharavathi Valley Project have set a deadline of 15 days to fulfill their demand. They have threatened to picket the Sharavathi Power Generation Centre if their demand was not fulfilled.
The protesters, who took out a march under the banner of Shivamogga District Sharavathi Hinneeru Mulugade Raitha Sangha on Wednesday, submitted a memorandum to the district administration.
Trustee of Chowdeshwari Temple at Sigandur Dharmappa, addressing the protesters, said that people in 166 villages lost their land to the project 60 years ago. Since then they had been fighting for grant of land. The government had not fulfilled their demand. The landlosers should get land and RTCs in their name.
Renukananda Swamy of Narayana Guru Samsthana at Nittur said the protest demanding land for the farmers should be intensified as the government had not listened to them. Hundreds of families gave up their land for the power generation project, which had been providing electricity for the State.
The demands included setting up of an authority for the development of the landlosers, immediate grant of land for the farmers, taking back the land, earlier reserved for the farmers, from the Forest Department and punish the officers who acted against the interest of farmers.
