Karnataka - Bijapur   

Farmers oppose land acquisition for airport

Up in arms: Residents of Buranpur and Madbhavi villages staging a protest in Bijapur on Thursday.

BIJAPUR: Residents of Buranpur and Madbhavi villages near here, whose land and properties are set to be acquired for the construction of an airport, on Thursday staged protest against the project.

The villagers, who gathered under the banner of Raitha Krishi-karmikar Sanghatane (RKS) and Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), All India Democratic Youth Organisation (AIDYO) and All India Mahila Samskritika Sanghatane (AIMSS) at Gandhi Chowk, took out protest march in city before holding demonstration at the Deputy Commissioner’s office.

B. Bhagwan Reddy, Mallikarjun T., Siddalinga Bagewadi and Deepti Devkate, office-bearers of the organisations, who spoke on the occasion, opposed the acquisition of agricultural land that belonged to marginal farmers for the construction of airport. They said the Government was acquiring over 860 acres of fertile land which was more than what was required for the project. In other parts of the country, not more than 500 acres of land was acquired for construction of airport of such a dimension, they said. Also, the land included around 330 acre of “gomala” land (grazing ground), and thousands of sheep reared by the villagers would be deprived of fodder.

The protesters said they were not opposed to the project but such a large extent of land was not required for it.

Deputy Commissioner V.B. Patil, who received a memorandum from them, said he would forward it to the Governor.

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