Overview
- Deve Gowda, speaking in Bengaluru on Saturday, alleged the Bidadi plan enables profiteering from farmers’ land and said he will fight it.
- He said he has written to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah seeking an inquiry into whose names about 20,000 acres around Bengaluru are registered.
- The project at issue is the ₹18,133 crore Greater Bengaluru Integrated Suburban Project in Bidadi, cleared by the Cabinet on April 30 and mapped to about 7,481 acres across nine villages in Bengaluru South and Ramanagara.
- Farmers and villagers have protested planned acquisition in the area, warning that fertile, irrigated land that supports dairy and horticulture could be taken.
- He criticized what he cast as concentrated sway over Bengaluru affairs and pointed to possible irregularities at the Bengaluru Development Authority, and the government has not announced any probe.