Govt. should acquire this land and compensate land owners: Siddaramaiah about Pachanady issue
Former CM was speaking to residents of Pachanady on dump yard issue
Mangaluru: Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday visited Pachenady village in the city which has been under the garbage after the local dump yard slumped it into the village, causing distress and property loss to various families.
Siddaramaih who is on his visit to Dakshina Kannada to meet the flood victims at flood affected places of the District visited Pachenady after arriving in the city at 11 am on Saturday. The former CM headed towards Pachenady from the Mangaluru International Airport amidst tight security.
Upon reaching the village the senior Congress leader met and interacted with the locals and affected families at Pachenady and assured them of demanding immediate solution of the issue from the state government.
Siddaramaiah while speaking to the affected residents said that he will call on the state government to either clear the village of all the garbage or acquire the land completely and provide adequate compensation to all the owners of the land.
“We will demand the government should either clear the mess or it should acquire the land and pay compensation to all the land owners. Houses should be built for all those who have lost their houses here or they should be given a separate monthly compensation of Rs. 10,000 for as house rent” Siddaramaiah said.
“If the government clears the village of all the mess, it should also build a retaining wall, make sure the water in the locality is not contaminated and should ensure every safety measure is checked. But for the government it is better to acquire the land and convert it into dump yard after paying compensation to the people” Siddaramaiah said.
Ullal MLA and former minister U T Khader, former minister B Ramanath Rai, MLC Ivan D’souza, Dakshina Kannada Youth Congress President Mithun Rai and others were also present along with Siddaramaiah during his visit.
Officials of Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) including Commissioner Mohammed Nazeer briefed the former CM about the conditions.
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Suburban rail project: HC halts axing of 368 trees at Bengaluru Cantonment
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has ordered that no trees should be cut or damaged on over eight acres of land near Cantonment Railway Station, where a suburban rail project has been proposed, The New Indian Express reported on Thursday.
The order was reportedly issued by a division bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice CM Poonacha after hearing a PIL filed by former MLA AT Ramaswamy and three others. Notices were issued to the state government, central government, Karnataka Biodiversity Board and the tree officer.
Countering the apprehension expressed by the counsel for petitioners over the move to axe trees, the Additional Solicitor General of India (on behalf of the Centre), submitted that the state has rightly withdrawn the notification as it was issued without consulting the Centre.
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Also, the petition is premature as the application has been made to the tree officer seeking permission to cut trees for the suburban rail project on the land in question, he said.
The petitioners reportedly said the land is an old green space with 371 large trees and forms part of the Cantonment Railway Station area. They argued that a public notice was issued in April inviting objections to the plan to remove 368 trees for the suburban rail project.
The notice stated that the commercial development project will come up on the land measuring 34,856 sq mts, which has been leased to a private company.
They also pointed out that the state government had earlier decided to declare the area a biodiversity heritage site, but the notification was withdrawn in December without explanation.
They termed the decision atrocious and the reasons given absurd. The petitioners alleged that, “It is very clear that all is not well with the state, which has taken a retrograde decision, though it is a matter of grave concern, which will have an adverse impact on Bengaluru’s environment.”
