The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Sparks fly over acquisition of land for SEZs, townships In the legislature

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Wednesday, Aug 01, 2007
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Sparks fly over acquisition of land for SEZs, townships In the legislature

Staff Reporter

Congress threatens to launch stir if Centre’s guidelines are violated

Adjournment motion sought to be moved on issue
Acquisition of fertile land for SEZs opposed

Bangalore: The Legislative Assembly witnessed a heated argument on Tuesday between Industries Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu and the former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar of the Congress over the large-scale acquisition of land for special economic zones (SEZs) and satellite townships around Bangalore.

In a brief reply, Mr. Naidu denied the charge levelled by Mr. Shivakumar that a fact-finding committee of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee had detected that the Government had sought to acquire 56,000 acres of land around Bangalore for industries. “It is not a fact-finding committee but one whose findings are false,” Mr. Naidu said, triggering a vociferous protest from Mr. Shivakumar and Mr. Siddaramaiah.

Earlier, Leader of the Opposition N. Dharam Singh, who moved the notice for an adjournment motion on the issue, M. Mallikarjun Kharge and R.V. Deshpande made the preliminary submissions demanding that fertile land should not be taken over for SEZs. The three leaders warned that the Congress would launch an agitation to protect farmers, if the Centre’s guidelines were violated in sanctioning SEZs.

Apology demanded

Demanding an apology from Mr. Naidu, the Congress leaders said he had insulted their party. Mr Siddaramaiah and Mr. Shivakumar said the State Government had violated the Centre’s guidelines in recommending SEZs, including one to be established on nearly 13,000 acres at Nandagudi near Hoskote. While only 16,668 acres of land was acquired for industries during the past 50 years, 29,850 acres was acquired during the 18 months of H.D. Kumaraswamy’s tenure as Chief Minister. The fact was that the Government, which claimed that it was pro-farmer, was in reality anti-farmer.

Mr Siddaramaiah and Mr. Shivakumar took a dig at the Janata Dal (S) for launching an agitation when the N. Dharam Singh government gave 800 acres to Infosys Technologies.

Coming down heavily on the setting up of SEZs around Bangalore, which was already plagued with chaotic traffic, air and water pollution and shortage of drinking water, they warned that it would lead to chaos after a few years.

Mr. Siddaramaiah maintained that the Government had violated the criteria for setting up SEZs, among which were the conditions that it should promote employment and exports and the promoters should purchase land directly from owners and such land should not be fertile.

‘Guise for land deals’

Mr. Shivakumar said he was not opposed to the Government encouraging SEZs in districts such as Chitradurga, Kolar, Tumkur and Bijapur. There was a demand for setting up SEZs around Bangalore owing to the high cost of land. “It is another way of promoting real estate activities, and it is unfortunate that the Government is itself a party to such shady activities,” he said

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