Police detain farmers after protest blocks Bengaluru South road
More than 50 farmers, including women, were detained after protesters blocked the Bidadi-Harohalli Road in opposition to the Greater Bengaluru Integrated Township project. Police said they had not decided whether to file a case, while farmers objected to conditions for presenting their views to a government review committee.
Police detained more than 50 people after farmers protesting the Greater Bengaluru Integrated Township project blocked the Bidadi-Harohalli Road near Bairamangala Circle in Bengaluru South district on Friday. More than 100 people had gathered at the site, where farmers were holding a hunger strike and opposing the Bidadi township project. Tractors and bullock carts were parked across the road, while cows and a Ganesha pandal were also used to block the route between Bidadi and Harohalli.
Police first asked the protesters to clear the road, but several refused and lay down on it. Officers, including women personnel, were then deployed and a police bus was brought to the site. A senior police officer said tensions rose when farmers willing to give up their land arrived and argued with those opposing the project.
Police detained people from both groups because the road was completely blocked, the officer said. A decision on filing a first information report had not been made. The protesting farmers said they were objecting to what they described as the sluggish work of a government-appointed committee reviewing the project.
They also criticised the committee’s requirement that farmers register at the deputy tahsildar’s office with land records and Aadhaar cards before presenting their views. Yashavantha T., state general secretary of the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha, said many farmers might not possess land records and could therefore be excluded from the hearings. The committee, led by former Karnataka High Court judge Guhanathan Narendar, is scheduled to hear objections on September 30 and October 1.
Separately, farmers from Devanahalli and Doddaballapur submitted a memorandum against proposed land acquisition for General Industrial Area Phase-3. A resident said the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board had proposed acquiring about 1,200 acres across five villages in the Arkavati basin. The deputy commissioner said the matter would be examined.
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