BDA flayed for increasing PRR width

Farmers who are losing their land to the peripheral ring road (PRR) project are up in arms against the Bangalore Development Authority’s (BDA) move to increase the width of the road.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, members of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Hasiru Sene alleged that the BDA had modified the proposed peripheral ring road plan by increasing the width of the road from 75 metres to 100 metres.

For acquiring the additional 25 metres of land, the BDA has offered 40 per cent of the developed land to the farmers. However, this has been opposed as farmers are not willing to give more land for the project.

Raghu N, one of the office-bearers of the Raitha Sangha , said the BDA previously required about 1,350 acres of land for the project, but with the increase in the width of the road, it might need about 1,800 acres of land.

Another office-bearer Manjunath said in Hirandahalli alone, the farmers were set to lose about 45 acres of land.

Raghu alleged that the BDA had issued notices to villagers asking them to attend a public hearing to evolve a consensus over giving the extra land for the project. However, at the public hearing only three days’ time was given to the land losers to deliberate on the issue. Many farmers, whose land would be acquired, were not in the town. He added that there was a proposal to offer TDR (Transfer of Development Rights), which is not in favour of land losers.