Residents of Guttinadu, Marghatta and surrounding areas of Chitradurga taluk took out a procession and staged a dharna urging rectification of the differences in survey of land for the Davangere-Tumakuru direct railway line. As the survey had already been carried out by the authorities two years ago, land being acquired is entirely different from the marks made for the actual acquisition.
The agitators said that two years ago, the authorities concerned visited Guttinadu, Marghatta, Sadarhalli, Ballekatte, Lakshmisagar, Vijapur, Kalkunte, Gourammanahalli, Hirebennur, Chikbennur, Chelangi and Heggeri villages to conduct a detailed survey of the land required for the railway line between Davangere and Tumakuru.
Recently, a team of officials visited for final acquisition of land for the project, but there emerged a lot of differences between the survey conducted and the land being acquired.
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The farmers in these villages are under complete confusion as to which portion of their land would be acquired for the project. The authorities concerned are not ready to give detailed information about the number of trees, crops, portions of houses, borewells and land that would be removed while acquiring land.
“Farmers are in deep trouble owing to drought for the last four years and are struggling to protect their standing crops, including arecanut. In many villages, farmers are supplying water to crops through tankers and if they lose standing crops, they would again face severe problems,” they added.
The agitators submitted a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Vasireddy Vijaya Jyothsna and said that an intensified agitation would be inevitable if the authorities concerned failed to take immediate steps to fulfil their demands.
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