'Notify ryots before acquiring farm lands'

The price for the land should be fixed in consultations with farmers, they urged Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, who held a meeting with farmers at Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore on Saturday.

K S Puttannaiah, President of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, alleged that Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) officers notify lands for industrial purposes according to their whims and fancies.

“Without consulting the farmers concerned, they issue notification stating no one should sell, purchase or mortgage the said land. This is highly undemocratic,” he said.
He questioned the need for an airport in Bellary, when there were two air strips functioning in the district already. “Why should we part with our fertile lands for an airport, when we have no capacity to travel by an aeroplane?” he questioned.

Puttannaiah urged the chief minister to ban MLAs from mining minerals in the State. “Zilla panchayat and taluk panchayat members have been barred from taking up contract of development works. Similarly MLAs should be barred from taking up mining activities,” he said.

GM food products
Working president of the Sangha, Kodihalli Chandrashekhar said genetically modified food products were harmful to health. The government should take a stand against such products in the State on the likes of the stand taken in Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. Mahesh Prabhu, a farmer from Chamarajanagar, demanded the chief minister to hold a cabinet meeting in Chamarajanagar.

Cases against farmers
Yeddyurappa said he had already issued instructions to the deputy commissioners to withdraw cases booked against farmers.
He assured farmers that during his rule no farmer would be ill-treated by the administration.

He also appealed to the farmers to exercise restraint during their protests.
The Chief Minister said he would constitute a committee of senior officers under the leadership of the chief secretary to look into the demands of the farmers.