Farmers and landowners, who will be losing land to the Dr. K. Shivaram Karanth Layout, are planning to hold a protest on Wednesday demanding that the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) drop the project.
Farmers’ leader Kodihalli Chandrashekhar, who recently caught the ire of the three-member apex court appointed committee in connection with the layout, will lead the protest outside the BDA head office.
On Tuesday, BDA issued a statement claiming its hands were tied as the apex court had ordered formation of the layout. It sought to inform the farmers that the protest against the layout would be against the order of the Supreme Court. The BDA appealed to farmers to instead cooperate with the formation of the layout, and accept an appropriate compensation package.
Mr. Chandrashekhar responded saying that they [farmers] at no point had opposed the apex court and their protest was against the BDA. “It was the BDA that approached the apex court appealing against a High Court order that had effectively quashed the layout formation. Large-scale de-notifications by successive chief ministers and irregularities by BDA have been swept under the carpet. The BDA has misled the apex court. The incumbent BDA chairman had written to the Chief Minister earlier asking for the layout project to be dropped,” said Mr. Chandrashekhar.
Criticising the layout, he said, “It is not a good development that attempts are being made to gag the farmers and quell protests in the name of the apex court,” he said.
