The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Gowda to appear before ‘people’s court’ today

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Gowda to appear before ‘people’s court’ today

Special Correspondent

It has been convened by those affected by the BMIC project

Bangalore: Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) president H.D. Deve Gowda and president of the State unit of the party and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy will appear before a “people’s court” convened by farmers and Project Affected Persons (PAPs) of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project in Bangalore on Sunday.

Reminiscent of the farmers’ protests against land acquisition in different parts of the country, the “people’s court” at Gandhi statue near Anand Rao Circle would be addressed, among others, by Sreenivasaiah, president of the Gandhi Memorial Trust, freedom fighter H.S. Doreswamy, president of the Bhu Horatagarara Samiti (Land Struggle Committee) Raghu, Dalit leader Nagaraj, and former Karnataka Law Minister M.C. Nanaiah, MLC, besides leaders from different walks of life, opposed to the BMIC project in its present form. The project is being executed by the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) Ltd.

Mr. Gowda during whose tenure as Chief Minister the project was sanctioned and Mr Kumaraswamy, during whose tenure a Commission of Inquiry was set up to probe the irregularities in the project will explain to the “people’s court” the efforts made by them to check the “illegalities and irregularities” involved in the project and do justice to the affected persons, including the poor farmers.

The “people’s court” is expected to conduct a public hearing on the problems faced by the farmers and larger issues of corruption and “looting of public exchequer” and come out with a “people’s verdict” and an action plan against the project, along with demands and suggestions that would be made over to the State’s political leadership.

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