Janata Dal (Secular) Youth Wing president Nikhil Kumaraswamy, who was leading a padayatra from Bidadi to Bengaluru opposing the Bidadi Township project, concluded the yatra midway at Kaniminike on Monday after the police blocked its entry into Bengaluru. Condemning the obstacles posed to the yatra by the State government, Mr. Nikhil announced that the party would hold a rally at Freedom Park on August 18, led by former Prime Minister and JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda. The Bidadi Township project has emerged as a major political flashpoint between Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and the JD(S) in the Vokkaliga heartland.

Mr. Deve Gowda, who flagged off the padayatra on the second day, Monday, later condemned the police action and said the party’s struggle against the project would not stop. “The Chief Minister has said that the government will not force farmers to give up their lands. Then why stop the padayatra?” he asked, alleging that the Chief Minister was in a hurry to implement the project to fulfil promises made to the Congress high command.

Earlier in the day, as the padayatra crossed the Bengaluru-Mysuru National Highway toll plaza near Kaniminike and entered Bengaluru Urban district, the police blocked it. Mr. Nikhil Kumaraswamy and JD(S) workers strongly objected to the police action and raised slogans against the government. Following a heated exchange, Mr. Nikhil sat on the road in protest. As the situation threatened to escalate, he eventually announced that the padayatra would be called off, accusing the government of attempting to suppress the farmers’ agitation.

Mr. Nikhil hit back at Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar and alleged that the Bidadi township project was a “real estate project”, and the farmers couldn’t be bought with money. He was responding to Mr. Shivakumar’s recent statement that the compensation for one acre of land for the project could be as high as ₹3 crore. 

Meanwhile, speaking to reporters in Malur, Mr. Shivakumar said there were no farmers in the BJP-JD(S) padayatra and that the parties had gathered party workers from other constituencies.  

Chaos ensued in Mandalahalli village near Bidadi as women farmers in the region went up in arms and wielded brooms at officials who had arrived to conduct the Joint Measurement Committee survey for the proposed Greater Bengaluru Township Project, popularly known as the Bidadi Township Project. Officials had to beat a hasty retreat.

With this, the row over the Bidadi township, championed by Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and has become a political flashpoint with Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, has only escalated further. 

The incident unfolded when officials of the Greater Bengaluru Development Authority (GBDA) came to survey lands belonging to those who had agreed to part with their land in the village and hand it over to the government. Officials came to the village with a substantial police force on Monday.

As the farmers were arguing with the police, a group of GBDA officials tried to begin the survey work. Enraged by this, a group of women farmers ran towards the vehicle the officials had arrived in and wielded brooms at them.

Videos have emerged showing officials being assaulted and government vehicles being damaged. Meanwhile, another video shows a 73-year-old farmer, identified as Krishnappa from Kempashettidoddi, collapsing during the melee. He has since been taken to a hospital.

Srinivas Gowda, Superintendent of Police, Bengaluru South District, made an attempt to persuade farmers to allow officials to carry out the survey, but failed. Subsequently, the officials had to leave the village.

Three injured, FIR filed

Mr. Gowda said that an FIR had been registered against a group of people on charges of assault, criminal intimidation, and obstructing public servants from discharging their duties.

“As many as two vehicles were damaged, and three police personnel, including a deputy superintendent of police, sustained injuries in the melee. We have initiated an enquiry into the incident, and action will be taken against those involved in the attack,” the SP said.

However, the incident had been anticipated, as farmers from the same village had marched across two villages last week carrying brooms as a sign that officials coming to conduct the survey would be welcomed with them.

Final notification

Last month, the State government issued the final notification for the acquisition of 519 acres of land across three revenue villages — Mandalahalli, Vaderahalli, and Kempayyanapalya. This is the first of three sets of villages to be notified for the Bidadi Township Project.

As part of the project planning, the GBDA proceeded with the survey, which is the next step following the issuance of the final notification. However, several farmers remain unwilling to part with their land. The farmers questioned why the GBDA was conducting the survey despite allegedly not securing the required consent from 80% of the landowners, even as the authority has maintained that it has already obtained the necessary level of consent.

Farmers dispute consent claims

GBDA official sources told The Hindu that, according to official data, 23 of the 26 landowners in Mandalahalli had already consented to the project.

Arjun Gangatkar, a protesting farmer from Bannigiri village, questioned the GBDA, asking why so many people were opposing the survey if 90% of the farmers in the village had indeed consented to the project.

Yashavantha T., State general secretary of the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS), alleged that the government, which has been continuously propagating that more than 80% of the people had consented to the land acquisition by creating fabricated records, had now resorted to conducting the survey under heavy police protection, creating fear among the farmers, which he said had led to the confrontation.