Real estate is the real problem for Yeddyurappa. In rural area, he is in the cross hair of farmers for taking away their land. In urban area, he is in the line of fire for not giving away land (housing sites) for needy.
But, the swamijis have emerged as the go-getters. Pejawar seer’s fast-unto-death threat brought the government on knees within minutes after his announcement of the hunger strike and spared cultivated land in Mangalore from going for an SEZ. The Thontadarya pontiff batted for the farmers in North-Karnataka agitating against industries gobbling up fertile land.
Agriculturists of Mysore region are not so fortunate. They could not find one saffron messiah. Adi Chunchanagiri swamy, who could have come as a crusader, himself, is seen as a landgrabber with his educational and medical institutions are squatting and notoriously fleecing. So, the strife to take back the excess land gone for the express highway between Bangalore and Mysore is taking them nowhere. 24-hour politician Deve Gowda has failed to lend the leadership with the movement is straying into the hands of petty underworld elements and dubious activists.
The urbanites dreaming of owing a site in cities like Bangalore and Mysore are nobody’s children. They can’t help bewildering Yeddyurappa gifting plum sites to his relatives and friends, not paying attention to their very existence. No pontiff to fight for their cause as their scheme of things are something different where in Sri Sri Ravishankars and Nityanandas are basking in the glory of a lucrative ‘motivational business’, and the politicians damn care for them because they can never be a vote bank.
But, why the BJP government is particular about giving land for Posco in Gadag? While the districts of Bijapur and Bagalkote, with rich water resources, are more suitable for industrial development, why the administration has set its eyes on the agriculture oriented tracts of land in the district where a major irrigation project is coming up to help farming?
Simple: the industry minister is himself an industrialist and he wants his industries to flourish in the atmosphere conducive to them. Murugesh Nirani owns many industries of sugar, cement, and others, and thousands of acres, in Bagalkote and Bijapur, are in the name of these industries. Great patriot he is, Nirani wants India developing in industry and Karnataka attracting global investments, but not at the cost of his own profit making companies. Pushing Posco to Gadag reserving Bijapur and Bagalkote for himself suits his business interest as well as Yeddyurappa’s political interest. By bringing in a global conglomerate to Gadag could also be a checkmate for the Reddys, who have a firm grip on the mineral-rich district.
And the BJP’s double standards, in Posco issue, are not difficult to comprehend. The party is vehemently opposing the steel giant in Odissa, while honestly supporting it in Karnataka. Being a supporter of the ruling BJD in Odissa, it is enjoying coalition politics by pushing chief minister Naveen Patnaik against the wall. In Karnataka, the party man Yeddyurappa is not allowing the high command to control him.
If JD(S) state president Kumarswamy is to be believed, Yeddyurappa is caught in between devil and the deep sea. Kumaraswamy says Posco has paid Rs. 500 crore to the chief minister as kickback because of which he cannot go against the company. But, he has called himself ‘a champion of farmers’. How can he let them down? After all he has taken oath in their name.
The trick he discovered is: divide the farmers and confuse the detractors. Hackles were raised, when a handful of farmers from Gadag came to Bangalore saying they were ready to sell their land. But, their move that came the very next day the government stopped the land acquisition was a part of politics played by a wily politician. Yeddyurappa said, in the morning, the land would not be taken even if the farmers wanted to sell. In the evening, his statement was changed to: “We will consider giving land to Posco, if the farmers are willing and Thontadraya swamiji permits.”
The question is: is a farmer entitled to sell a farm land just because he is the title owner? The fertile land is the state property and its conservation is imperative in ensuring food security and ecological balance. As Pejawar seer suggested selling the agriculture land for the greed of money is like undergoing religious conversion for allurement.
The pontiff sounds sensible. Better we listen to his wise words.
1 comment:
Sir,a good write up portraying the actual ground realty. The fact of the matter is that these politicians have a hidden agenda and nobody is bothered about welfare and development activities.Though the CM and his team always use the jargon development always but alas it exists only in the dictionary. None of these guys have a vision but only a single point short term agenda of what is in it for me how much money do I make.The farmers are the ultimate losers.Posco requires a lot of water and where will the water come from, the irrigation minister says no water will be given from any reserviours whom is he trying to fool will the steel plant run on rain water. Gadag city for the last 30 years gets drinking water once in 7 days during monsoons and once in 15/20 days during summer from Singtalur, from the same source the govt is planning to give water to Posco. One can imagine the situation in Gadag if Posco comes up in Gadag dist, but thanks to the seer who lead the agitation and the govt has backed off. Posco or the Mittals are not coming to Karnataka & India because they want to do charity because they have been assured captive mines by the govt whose valuations run into billions of dollars, these guys for a couple of hundred crores they make are literally selling of our mother land to the foreign companies. Jindal who is present in karnataka for almost 2 decades and has a 10 MTPA capacity does not have captive mines even as on today. When this is the situation why should the Poscos and Mittals be given captive mines,if the CM has the guts let him announce that for the next 10 years no captive mines would be given and may be considered after a gap of 10 years of the plant being operational, in the next one hour we will see statements from Poscos and Mittals that they are withdrawing their projects from Karnataka.First let them give water to the existing plants in Bellary dist then think about new steel plants.God save this state and this country from the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats I doubt even he can save only the public now have to revolt to change the rot that we are in
Ravi
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