Raitha Sangha, Hasiru Sene to boycott Deputy Commissioner's meeting

Addressing mediapersons at a press conference here on Friday, working president of the organisation Ravikiran Poonacha said that the gas pipeline would pass through Mangalore, Bantwal and Belthangady taluks in Dakshina Kannada, as well as Hassan and Mysore districts. All the farmers whose land is set to be acquired for laying the pipeline are against the 'temporary acquisition' of their land. Hence, members of our organisation, along with other affected farmers, will boycott the meeting scheduled to be held on Saturday, he said, adding that there was no question of discussing the compensation amount when farmers were not ready to up their land.

He said that when Petronet MHB Ltd had laid a pipeline earlier in the district, the 62 affected land-owners and farmers were not given even the minimum compensation due to them. “Even now, the farmers on whose land the LPG pipeline has been laid, are affected by leakages from the pipeline are unavailable to cultivate any crop. In this case, we fear that once the pipeline is laid, that stretch of land cannot be used for cultivation. Hence, we oppose the pipeline and urge that the project be withdrawn,” he said, adding that even the temporary acquisition of land for the HPCL pipeline was not a suitable solution.

He also said that there were possibilities of a disaster in the future due to the gas leakages in the Petronet LPG pipeline laid earlier, and hence, the farmers of the region were against giving up their land for the HPCL pipeline to be laid.