JOIN USEminent social activist Medha Patkar, on Thursday, dubbed the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Project (BMIC) a fraud, claiming all political parties were involved in it.
Addressing reporters on the sidelines of a protest rally against the project being implemented by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises, Patkar said the project was a clear case of evicting people and encroaching upon large tracts of land in the name of developing a highway.
She observed that none knew what kind of project was coming up, when the acquisition process for 10,000 acres of land began.
“The 12,000 acres of extra land which was acquired was the costliest. Under this project, houses of poor people, dalits and constructions workers were demolished,” Patkar said, adding the land acquired was in violation of the acquisition process.
Incidentally, adjacent to the venue, at Freedom Park, the Republican Party of India, which was holding a mammoth rally, saw its national president Ramdas Athavale join the rally against the project, lending his party’s support for the cause.
Earlier, Leo Saldanha of Environment Support Group, which had organised the event, said the project was the biggest fraud which displaced thousands of poor farmers, dalits and minorities.