Karnataka - Bangalore

BDA officials extract pound of flesh from farmers?

Bangalore: Officials of the Bangalore Development Authority, who are hearing objections from farmers against land acquisition in the villages around Kengeri and Yeshwanthpur for the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout, are allegedly demanding money from the farmers to exclude their land from the acquisition process. The amount ranges from Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 10 lakh for an acre, according to sources.

Acknowledging this racket, BDA Commissioner Siddaiah told The Hindu that “though the farmers have not met me directly and complained, I got to know about this from various sources.”

Following this, a committee headed by the Bangalore Development Authority Superintendent of Police has been set up on Monday to investigate the matter.

“It will submit the report within 10 days and strict action will be initiated against the officials if the charges are proved,” he said.

He said such instances were damaging the image and credibility of BDA.

“These are serious allegations and we cannot ignore them as they are damaging the reputation of the organisation,” he added.

Tipped to be one of the biggest BDA layouts, Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout is planned on 4,815 acres of land in Kengeri at an estimated cost of Rs. 2,639 crore. Land in 12 villages including Bheemanakuppe, Challaghatta, Kodigehalli, Kannahalli, Soolkere, Sonnenehalli, Ramasandra, Kenchanapura and surrounding villages are to be acquired.

The proposed layout is located adjacent to Visvesvaraya Layout, off Bangalore-Mysore Road.

Land on survey numbers 150, 161 and 162 in Bheemanakuppe and 84, 102, 105, 109, 161, 164, 166 and 169 in Ramasandra villages that was earlier identified for acquisition has been conspicuously left out from the preliminary notification, the sources said.

“All the deleted survey numbers fall in the middle of the proposed layouts. They have put up brick kilns on the land to show that the land is being used. We have brought this to the notice of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa,” K.N. Venkatachalaiah, president of Karnataka Pranta Raitha Sangha ,said.

Lakshmanappa, a farmer of Bheemanakuppe, alleged that similar dealings were happening in Soolkere and Kenchanapura.

“The officials are doing this in connivance with the presidents of the village panchayats and builders,” he alleged.

“We know that these people are actually cheating the gullible farmers, whose land could be safe till the particular official is transferred,” he said.

The layout is being taken up on a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model, where farmers will be the private players.

Farmers will get 40 per cent of the total number of developed sites.

They will be given the option to take money as compensation, or developed sites or both.

The Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout will have 60,000 sites.

The BDA is forming a residential layout of this size after a gap of four years.

The previous one was Arkavathy Layout which is still incomplete following legal hurdles.

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