Karnataka

Shanti Gudde residents agree to vote

MANGALORE: On Monday, residents of Shanti Gudde reluctantly re-entered the democratic mainstream after threatening to boycott the elections to the State Assembly.

The person who led the agitation, Krishna Raj, says: “Not all people here are happy with lifting the boycott. But we realised that abstaining from the electoral process is not going to improve our lot.”

The residents here are demanding that their lands be acquired for the Rs. 35,000- crore Mangalore Special Economic Zone project.

The Shanti Gudde area was left out by the proponents of the project as they felt that that there is less land there and more people.

The area borders the Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Limited plant. Now, the residents are afraid that another mega-petrochemical project in their neighbourhood will change their lives irreversibly for the worse.

“We are not demanding that lands be purchased. We are demanding that we be evacuated. There is a difference,” says Mayyadi (48), a resident.

Shanti Gudde, also called Shanti Nagar, is an eight-acre piece of land in Bajpe, now under Moodbidri constituency, inhabited by 800 people. The land was allotted as part of a government housing scheme in 1974.

Majority of people in this village are farm labourers and petty traders, who are dependent on the surrounding villages for their livelihood. But most of the surrounding areas have been notified or acquired for the MSEZ. “If our neighbouring villages go, then we want to go too,” says Nusrath, another resident.

People here say that the leaders of various political parties made repeated visits to the village in an attempt to convince them to vote.

Speaking to The Hindu on Thursday Sohail, a resident, said that as the polling date approached, the battle for supremacy between parties had intensified. “It has come down to a point where every vote matters,” he said.

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