[Reader-list] More on Mangalore SEZ

[Natesh Ullal]

The district administration is trying it's best to convince people that the struggle will not yield anything but agony. The DC has forced contact programmes on the villagers on 28th and 29th in 4 villages, against the request of people for one meeting for all the villagers. The panchayat presidents also informed the DC that it is difficult to get people at such a short notice as most of them work in the fields during the day. 

The DC refused to postpone the contact programme. The intention behind the contact programme seems to take the advantage of fear that people have about the IAS and also to identify the weaklings in the farmers camp.

Below is yesterday's press brief from The Hindu.

natesh
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The Hindu
Karnataka - Mangalore  27-07-07   

Samiti opposes handing over of agricultural land to SEZ 


Special Correspondent 


KIADB planning to acquire 2,035 acres of land in four villages  

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The identified land has religious shrines, says samiti

‘Most of the identified land is of patta category’


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MANGALORE: The Krishi Bhoomi Samrakshana Samiti has opposed the handing over of land for the proposed Mangalore Special Economic Zone (MSEZ) project stating that the land which had been identified for the project was agricultural land and had religious shrines belonging to all communities.

President of the samiti M. Madhukar Amin told presspersons here on Thursday that the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) was planning to acquire 2,035.31 acres of agricultural land in four villages in Mangalore taluk — Permude, Tenka Yekkaru, Kutthethoor and Delanthabettu. All these villages had been thriving on agriculture and there was only two-three per cent of fallow land in this cluster of villages, he said.

The samiti, which has gathered opinions from landowners and farmers in the villages, has found that none of the farmer families were willing to give away their agricultural land for the proposed MSEZ. Mr. Amin said the MSEZ managing director had recently given statements in the media that only five per cent of the identified land was cultivable and the rest was fallow land and almost all farmer families had consented to give up their land. This statement was far from truth, he added.

Mr. Amin said that the samiti had been incensed particularly about converting agricultural land into industrial area and displacing the farmers.

He said the samiti members were feeling insecure about their future as they did not know anything else but farming. 

General secretary of the samiti Lawrance D’Cunha said most of the land identified for the MSEZ in these villages belonged to “Patta” category. 

In Permude 792.71 acres of land was in “patta” category and 82 acres was government land. In Kutthethoor 269.79 acres was “patta” land and 74.63 acres government land. In Delanthabettu 236.141 acres was “patta” land and 132.339 acres government land and in Tenka Yekkaru 446.68 acres was “patta” land and 3.02 acres was government land, he said. 

If these lands were to be acquired, religious shrines such as “Bootha Sthaanas”, churches, temples and “Naga banas” would be lost, Mr. D’Cunha said. People in these villages had expressed strong resentment against taking over their land, he added.