Joining issue with JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda over the land acquired for Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa today accused the previous JD(S) government of acquiring 3,653 acres of excess land for the company.
He said the excess land would be returned to farmers. “An agreement was signed by NICE and Karnataka Area Industrial Development Board (KAIDB) to acquire 23,846 acres of land as against 20,193 acres stipulated under the MoU,” Yeddyurappa, told reporters here.
Gowda had organised two-day farmers rally in Delhi last week to focus the attention of the Centre to the plight of farmers whose land was acquired for the project. “My government will not give one inch of excess land to NICE other than specified in the Framework Agreement which was also signed during the Janata Dal rule. The excess land will be returned to farmers”, Yeddyurappa said in an apparent rebuttal to the barrage of criticism mounted by Gowda and his son and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy over the issue.
“Gowda and his son Kumaraswamy can acquire any quantum of land in the name of development, including for a golf course in their home town Hassan. If the BJP government does it, it is branded anti-farmer,” Yeddyurappa alleged. In Hassan, during March 2007, Kumaraswamy government had issued preliminary notification for acquiring 1,749 acres, including 206 acres for a golf course, he said and pointed out “these lands are fertile and belonged to farmers only”.
Yeddyurappa said, JD(S) and Congress were impeding development works of his government. The BJP government has been acquiring land with the consent of farmers, he claimed, but could not explain the reasons for a strong wave of protests by farmers witnessed in parts of Bangalore rural, Davanagere and Bellary.
Despite the state enjoying sound financial position, the opposition parties have been carrying on a ‘malicious propaganda’ that the finances were in a shambles and the state was on the verge of bankruptcy, he said.
