Report on BIA land sought

Hearing a batch of petitions challenging the land acquisition for the aerospace project as well as seeking compensation for the land acquired for BIA, Justice Shylendra Kumar sought details regarding the land acquired for BIA and how it has been utilised.

Observing that neither the KIADB nor the government had placed all the materials pertaining to the acquisition of land for BIA, the court directed the State to furnish all the details during the hearing. The court sought to know why the aerospace project can’t be given land adjacent to the airport and asked the State whether there was any land unutilised.

When the counsel submitted that he had no idea about it, as the land was handed over to Karnataka State Small Scale Industries Corporation, the nodal agency for BIA, the court said: “Are you real estate officials?” When the Government submitted that aerospace was a significant project and that several big companies like HAL were demanding about 100 acres of land, the court said: “They have vast extent of land of the old airport. Why do they want land here?”.

The court said KIADB had joined the list of land grabbers like politicians and bureaucrats in the name of development. The aerospace project requires just 35 acres, but 1,069 acres of land has been acquired, the court said. It wanted to know for whom the land has been acquired.

The petitioner, a resident of Doddajala, had moved the High Court seeking compensation for the land acquired for BIA. Another petitioner has challenged the acquisition of 1,069 acres of land in Dummanhalli, Singahalli, Hunasuru, Jannahalli, Khadimmanahalli and nearby villages in Bengaluru North and Devanahalli taluks.