Bidadi row: BJP leaders promise land-losing farmers to scrap township project when in power

Stepping up their resistance against acquisition of agricultural land for the proposed Bidadi Integrated District project, opposition BJP leaders visited the affected villages on Wednesday to express solidarity with farmers who are set to lose their land and announced to cancel the project if the BJP-JD(S) coalition comes to power in 2028.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashok, who was part of the delegation along with Leader of Opposition in the Council Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, State BJP president BY Vijayendra and senior legislators S. Suresh Kumar and CN Ashwath Narayan, told media persons after meeting the Bidadi farmers that there was no point in Chief Minister DK Shivakumar going ahead with “forced” land acquisition.

short term

“It is certain that Chief Minister DK Shivakumar will not be able to implement this project as he has only one and a half years left in his term,” Mr. Ashok said. Accusing the Congress government of falsely claiming that the acquired lands were barren, he said all land parcels in Bidadi were fertile.

Visiting the primary cooperative milk collection center at Bidadi, Mr. Ashok said data showed that milk worth ₹25 crore was procured annually from the district. Similarly, the sericulture industry in the region was generating an annual income of ₹35 crore.

About rebuilding lives

Trying to refute the claim that farmers can rebuild their lives with compensation, Mr. Ashok gave the example of his own family and said: “My family was given compensation of ₹65,000 for 65 acres of land acquired long ago in Jalahalli area of ​​Bengaluru. But not even a single paisa is left for us from this compensation.”

He accused senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of applying double standards, stating that Mr Gandhi, who visited the Andaman-Nicobar Islands to express concern over environmental destruction related to the port project, is now silent on his party government’s move to acquire fertile agricultural land for the district project.

BY Vijayendra, State president of BJP, took exception to Mr. Shivakumar, claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had praised him for taking up the Bidadi Town project and asked him not to use Mr. Modi’s name for his own selfish political interests.

‘Using gondas’

Mr. Vijayendra alleged that the Congress government was using goondas to terrorize resisting farmers. He urged the Prime Minister to desist from such illegal measures to acquire land by force.