A Gram Sabha was convened at Thenka Yekkar on Monday in which residents of both Thenka and Badagu Yekkar participated. The intention of the Gram Sabha is to provide information to the residents about the SEZ project so as to clear the fear and misconceptions in their minds about the project.
While Mangalore Special Economic Zone (MSEZ) chief operation officer A G Pai went up to address the residents, the residents refused to listen to him.
All that the residents had to say was, “ When we do not have any plans of giving our land it is futile to even know what SEZ is all about’’.
On Sunday residents of Permude, Delanthalabettu, Kuttetoor and Thenka Yekkar held a meeting and formed Krishi Bhoomi Samrakshana Vedike to save their fertile agricultural lands being acquired for the proposed MSEZ. The newly formed Samiti decided to meet Deputy Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao and at the earliest and then chalk out their plans of action.
Madhukar Amin Shibaroor was elected as the president of the Samiti, Lawrence D’Cunha of Permude as secretary. A list of people across the political spectrum have been included as honourary presidents namely Minister for fisheries B Nagaraj Shetty, Udupi MP Manorama Madhwaraj, MLA Krishna Palemar, ZP member Victoria D’Cunha, Shaila Sequerra, TP members Suresh Shettyu, Sandhya Shetty, Vajrakshi Shetty and others.
The four villages will be engulfed into the MSEZ if the acquisition process begins and as a protest to this the Samiti has been formed.
 With the people of the affected area manifesting their solidarity, a far reaching people’s movement seems to be shaping up in the region.