Dharwad: The meeting convened by the district administration on October 6 for fixing prices for agriculture lands in Dharwad taluk identified for setting up Industrial area was deferred after it failed to arrive at a consensus between the officials and farmers..
The government in the past had identified 70 acres of agriculture land in Kotur village, 594 acres in Belur village belonging to 70 farmers for setting up of industrial area in the region. The authorities had not fixed the price for the land then, farmers continued with cultivation.
On Wednesday the meeting Chaired by the Deputy Commissioner SB Bommanalli though dealt with the issue at length but farmers were adamant and demanded Rs. 78 lakhs per acre of land which the (KIADB) officials led by special DC M S Archana did not agree.
Quoting Higher Education minister Basavaraj Rayareddi who had said that KIADB parted with around 460 acres of land for free for setting up of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Dharwad which costed the exchequer Rs. 500 crores, farmers on that basis demanded Rs. 78 lakhs per acre which was not agreed upon.
Instead the officials said, Rs. 26 lakhs per acre was given for the land acquired at Mummigatti and surrounding villages in 2008-09. Farmers in Dharwad taluk rejected the KIADB offer of Rs. 22 to 26 lakhs per acre, because of which meeting was deferred.
Then farmers gave the deadline of one week for the district administration for fixing proper price for their land and demanded their land back if the authorities failed to do justice in the matter.
The district administration was planning another meeting in this regard in the next week to sort out the issue.
