MAKING A POINT: Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha president K.S. Puttanaiah addressing farmers in front of the MUDA office in Mysore on Thursday. — PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

MYSORE: Many farmers owning land on the outskirts of Mysore staged a demonstration in front of the offices of Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) on Thursday to protest against the acquisition of their land for developing residential layouts.

They urged the authorities concerned to drop the decision to acquire an additional 2,500 acres of land, the preliminary notification for which has been issued, and concentrate on development works on the land acquired by the MUDA for creation of layouts.

The farmers, who organised the demonstration under the aegis of Bhoomi Thayi Horata Samithi, said 500 acres of land, which had been identified for acquisition by the MUDA, had standing crops and houses of poor people, who had obtained clearances from the jurisdictional gram panchayats and local bodies.

They took exception to the State Government's recent decision to de-notify vast tracts of land acquired by the MUDA to favour private land developers.

"Let the Government make public the details behind its decision to de-notify the land acquired by the MUDA," samithi leader Hoskote Basavaraj said referring to the controversial decision of the Urban Development Department to de-notify 55 acres of land acquired by the MUDA at Kergalli.

Accusing the MUDA of abandoning its primary duty of developing residential layouts, the farmers said that it was "sleeping" over the acquired land. "The agency is not carrying out development work on the land acquired. The agency is merely restricting itself to issuing no-objection certificates to private land developers. Do we need the MUDA at all? ", they asked.

The samithi urged the MUDA to stop acquisition of fresh land till it completed the pending work on providing civic amenities to all residential layouts it had taken up for development. "The MUDA should not acquire fresh land till work on the layouts under development is completed. The agency should neither invite fresh applications from site aspirants," the samithi said.

The farmers urged the Government to "confiscate" the sites of those who had violated the norms of MUDA. "The Government should bar site owners from selling their sites till 20 years after allotment," farmers' leader Belagola Nagendra said. The farmers were of the opinion that there was no need for MUDA to acquire fresh land as it had not completed the development work on the land acquired. "Hence, the MUDA should withdraw its notification issued for acquisition of fresh land," Mr. Nagendra said.

If the MUDA required land after completing the development work on acquired land, it should purchase land from farmers by paying double the market rate, besides providing them a 40x60 site for each acre acquired. "If not, let the MUDA provide land losing farmers half of the developed land," Mr. Basavaraj said.

Thursday's protest by Bhoomi Thayi Horata Samithi comes in the wake of the preliminary notification issued by the MUDA to acquire land at Sathgalli, Ramanahalli, Hanchya, Yaraganahalli, Nadanhalli, Lalithadripura, Uttanahalli and Yandahalli.

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