M’luru activists demand govt. to scrap KIAD Act 1966

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, April 21, 2016: Addressing media on April 20, Wednesday,  social activists Lolaksha and Vidya Dinker urged the State government to scrap  KIAD,  Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Act, 1966, as they termed it “draconian”.  They urged the State government to issue a White Paper on the area of land the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) had acquired since 1966. It should also come out with details of what part of this land was actually been put to use for which it had been acquired.

They said that the KIADB acquired 641.915 acres of land in Nadsal, Hejamady, Nandikuru and Palimar in Udupi district in 2006 for Suzlon Infrastructure Ltd. But the land has changed hands to Synefra Engineering and Construction Ltd and from them to Aspen Infra Ltd, the current owners of the land, over the years.

Aspen Infra on its part is now attempting to sell 147.384 acres of land to a bidder and has placed an advertisement in a national business daily dated February 9, 2016.

Activist Lolaksha said that Suzlon R and R Colony Abhivruddhi Samiti in its letter dated March 3 to Rathna Prabha, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Industries and Commerce, has lodged its protest against this proposed sale. Vidya Dinker wondered why 641.915 acres was acquired in the first place for Suzlon when it had publicly stated at a public meeting that its requirement was just 150 acres.

“This is nothing but real estate business that the government is conducting,” she alleged. The KIADB must return the unused land to their rightful owners under ‘zameen wapsi’, she said.

Social activist and leader Lolaksha said if Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was standing by his socialist credentials, he should incorporate salient features of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, as introduced by the UPA government into the KIAD Act, 1966. The government must also stand by its own New Industrial Policy 2014-19 which speaks about long-term lease of land and not its outright sale.