Though a tensed situation prevailed in the vicinity, no untoward incident was reported.

In his introductory remarks, Deputy Commissioner M Maheshwar Rao made it clear that the public hearing is being held to discuss only environment related matters.

Later, MSEZ Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director I S N Prasad said that contiguity was an essential part of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Act. “The agriculture land was acquired as there was no choice.

However, minimising acquisition of agricultural land and thickly populated area was an important yardstick in the selection process,” he said and added that about 1,000 acres of land acquisition was dropped in Kuthetoor village due to a lot of agricultural land in the vicinity.

First objection

When MSEZ Chief Operating Officer A G Pai was giving details about the acquisition of land and various studies on air, water, noise, land and biology conducted by the competent authorities, a certain Mr Leo Saldanha raised an objection saying that as per the rules the EIA report should have been given to all the affected people in the local langauge (Kannada) 30 days prior to the conduct of public consultation.

Though the deputy commissioner tried to convince the people that the authorities concerned had given the summary of report in Kannada, representatives of NGOs and some villagers demanded that they wanted the whole report only in Kannada.

When KSPCB Member Secretary B Venkatesh said that the officials had decided that issuing the summary in Kannada was sufficient, many people sought to know how can the KSPCB officials decide on how much and what should be given in Kannada.

Illegal

At this juncture, Mr Leo Saldanha went on to say that the very fact that the report was not in Kannada means that the Deputy Commissioner has violated the rule and the forum (meeting) was illegal for which the Deputy Commissioner  shot back: “If it is illegal forum, you have the liberty to leave.”

Continuing, the DC said that he would forward the objection raised by Mr Saldanha to the Central Technical Committee and let the CTC take a decision in this regard.

But several people including Sunny D’Souza (Raitha Sangha), Upendra Hosabettu (DK Parisaraasakthara Okkuta), Madhukar Amin (Krishi Bhoomi Samrakshana Samithi) and Lawrence D’Cunha (Bhu Samrakshana Vedike) among others demanded postponement of the hearing.

Discussion with people’s reps

In a bid to pacify the agitators, the DC even held a brief discussion with people’s representatives Krishna J Palemar, Vijaykumar Shetty and former minister B A Moideen. Though all the three people’s representatives tried to convince the villagers, people did not pay any attention to the people’s representatives.

As the people raised their voice, Mr Palemar told the DC to conduct the proceedings as per law.

Many speakers

Soon afterwards, many a speakers including Commodore Pereira, Mr Sunny D’Souza and Mr Madhukar Amin spoke.

While Mr D’Souza requested for postponement of public hearing till a government is formed, Mr Amin read a letter written by the KCCI to the State government in 2001 requesting the latter to keep chemical firms outside the SEZ purview. He also said that no study on carrying capacity of the district has been undertaken as claimed by Mr A G Pai.

Meeting closed

Minutes later, left with no choice, the DC announced that he would close the meeting and walked out.

Speaking to media persons outside the auditorium after he left the auditorium, the Deputy Commissioner said that he did not postpone the meeting but closed the meeting. He also regretted that a lot of people could not express their opinions as a few people did not allow smooth conduct of the meeting. “We could record only three objections,” he said.

“I will submit the report (day’s proceedings) to Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF),” he added and said: “Let the MoEF decide future course of action.”

Protest continues

As the deputy commissioner and all the other officials concerned left the venue, the NGO leaders and villagers decided to stage a protest in front of the DC office. Accordingly, they went to DC office and demanded that the DC visit them and assure them a fresh date for public hearing.

After waiting for 7 pm, the protesters submitted a memorandum to the HQA demanding postponement of the public hearing.