CM Shivakumar’s first big challenge: Farmers protest, Opposition lends support against project near Bengaluru

Farmers Chandra Reddy and Ashwath Reddy are neighbours in Kempayyana Palya village, near Bidadi in Bengaluru South district. Around 10 days ago, both received final notices from the Greater Bengaluru Development Authority for their land, being sought for the Greater Bengaluru Integrated Township (GBIT) Project – a 9,000-acre, 20-year-old plan, which now has the weight of Chief Minister D K Shivakumar behind it.

Chandra, 60, is happy about the acquisition of his 2.5-acre land, in exchange for development rights on the land acquired. But Ashwath, who owns four acres, has said no. “They tried giving the offer. I declined,” he told The Indian Express.

However, with Shivakumar taking over the top post recently, Ashwath feels his options are closing.

On June 12, just over a week after he had replaced Siddaramaiah as CM, the Shivakumar government issued the order for the final acquisition of 499 acres – across the villages of Kempayyana Palya, Vaderahalli and Mandalahalli – for the GBIT. The order asked landholders to raise objections if any within 30 days.

The Opposition BJP and JD(S) are supporting the protesting farmers, while several of the project-affected have written to senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, expressing their reservations – posing the first major administrative challenge to the new CM.

The project

Earlier called the Bidadi Integrated Township, the project was initially proposed nearly two decades ago, in October 2006, by the then JD(S)-BJP coalition government as a housing solution for the fast-growing Bengaluru city. The Chief Minister then was JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy.

The Kumaraswamy government subsequently floated a global tender to develop the region under the Public Private Partnership Model. DLF emerged as a development partner in 2007, but withdrew following the global economic crisis of 2008-09.

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By 2011, the project was in abeyance as the government awaited amendments by the Central government led by the UPA to the land acquisition Act.

In 2016, the land under which the project was expected to come up was renamed the Greater Bengaluru Bidadi Smart City Local Project Area, and a planning authority was formed. Karnataka then had a BJP government, led by B S Yediyurappa.

In March 2023, the Congress came to power, Months later, in November 2023, the Greater Bengaluru Bidadi Smart City Project Authority was upgraded to Greater Bengaluru Development Authority. Shivakumar, the Deputy CM in the Congress government, with Bengaluru seen as his turf, soon adopted the plan as a pet project, pitching GBIT as an AI city.

In March last year, the government issued the primary notification to acquire 7,481 acres across nine villages – Aralalusandra, Bannigiri, Byramangala, K G Gollaparapalya, Hosur, Mandalahalli, Kempayyana Palya, Kanchugaranahalli and parts of Vaderahalli.

Farmer fears

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Ever since the March 2023 notification, farmer groups have been holding protests against the project. Umesh, a farmer from Bannigiri who has been part of a continuing sit-in at Byramangala for the past 15 months, asks why there are two sets of rules for them and Shivakumar’s own constituency. “At Kanakapura, the CM tells his constituents not to sell their land, to do agriculture, animal husbandry and sericulture… If they are children of farmers, are we not?” Umesh says.

On Sunday, the JD(S) began a padyatra across the affected villages, led by its Youth Wing president Nikhil Kumaraswamy. The party calls the project a “massive real estate deal”, with around Rs 33,000 crore profits envisaged after acquiring land for around Rs 2.5 cr per acre. “Why has Shivakumar made this project as a matter of prestige and is doing injustice to farmers?” Nikhil said.

BJP state president B Y Vijayendra says fertile land is being taken over. “The CM is doing real estate work.” Shivakumar has countered that the project has been appreciated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among others, and accused the BJP and JD(S) of attempting to “stop development” in the state.

At a recent news conference, Congress leader M Lakshmana said land is to be acquired from 6,043 farmers, of which a little over one-tenth (663) are against the move.

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Among those in support is Rajanna, who owns 70 acres at Hosur and calls himself a Congress supporter. Arguing that development on the outskirts was essential to ease congestion in Bengaluru, and that the project is planned in “partnership” with farmers, he says: “Will Opposition parties amend the law to say that we will not acquire any land at all?”

However, the three-year period for realisation of the project has some people worried. Ravindra, a farmer and an office-bearer of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, asks what would happen if the government changed. “A new government may put the project in abeyance and farmers like us who gave up land will be left in the lurch.”

The compensation package

The GBIT has been proposed as a public-farmer partnership model, with compensation ranging from Rs 2.07 per crore to Rs 2.55 crore, depending on the proximity of a land plot to main roads. With a lot of farmers in the area growing crops such as coconut, mango, arecanut, sapodilla, tamarind and jackfruit, compensation was set at Rs 6,000-Rs 9,000 per arecanut tree to Rs 45,000-Rs 64,000 per mango tree.

Additionally, as per the 2013 Rehabilitation and Resettlement Rules, landless families are entitled to plots to build homes, the project displaced to reservation benefits, and landholders and the landless to regular payments till the full payment was made in three years.

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Farmers can also opt for development rights, as part of which they will get half the rights if their plots are used for residential purposes, and 45% if there is commercial use.