No money, site or rules: Farmers, greens corner BDA at PRR meet

The online public hearing on the environmental impact of the Peripheral Ring Road witnessed loads of brickbats from activists, farmers, and landowners anguished by the 15-year delay in providing compensation.

The 65.5-km-long, eight-lane road is estimated to cost Rs 15,111.42 crore, which is likely to go up considering the need to acquire another 400 acres of land. The road also requires felling 33,838 trees and will affect the Thippagondanahalli catchment area.

Nearly 180 people attended the public hearing conducted by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) on Zoom on Wednesday.

Bharath Ram, a landowner, said his plot in Soladevanahalli’s SBI Layout was marked for acquisition in a notification issued by the BDA in 2006 but he had not received any notice so far.

Nagesh Yadav, the son of a farmer, said he was in high school when their land was notified. “My father has spent the last 15 years running from pillar to post, seeking compensation.

He is now bedridden. We can neither use the land nor get the money. Don’t push us into the same situation. Build the road soon or scrap the project,” he said.

Annapoorna, another participant, asked for the BDA’s mitigation plan to save the water table while Shreya Dasgupta and three others raised concerns about the proposal to build the road through the Jarakabande reserve forest.

Leo Saldanha of Environment Support Group and Tara Krishnaswamy of Citizens for Bengaluru questioned the validity of the hearing which was held without disclosing the alignment of the road.

However, some of the participants stood in support of the BDA. Tejasvi, a resident of Yashwantpur, said the world was looking at Bengaluru due to its role as an IT hub. “The infrastructure needs of the city have to be met. Please do not listen to the NGOs. Save the people from traffic snarls,” he said.

Shilpa Rao, another participant, stressed that environmentalists were not opposed to the PRR but were only opposing the BDA’s failure to follow the due procedure.