BALLARI: In a big embarrassment to the Congress, its sitting Hospet MLA Anand Singh and Ballari City’s former MLA Anil Lad have raised the banner of rebellion, by opposing the sale of land to JSW at Thoranagallu and adjoining villages.
While the JDS-Congress coalition government has been firm on the sale of 3,667 acres of land to JSW to ‘honour’ its lease-cum-sale agreement drawn up in the year 2006, the Congress’ own cadre is against it. Even as senior leader H K Patil raised his voice against it, Ballari’s Congress netas Anand Singh and Anil Lad joined the bandwagon.
At a joint press conference, the duo came up with several allegations against the steel giant, ranging from not providing employment to harassing locals using the police. They urged the government not to sell the land. “Instead, let them give the land on lease. We are not against the industry, but we do not want our farmers’ lands to be given away. Though the government has been saying that the lease-cum-sale deal had been done earlier, we request the CM to just extend the lease. The land is being sold at Rs 1.2 lakh, which is a very cheap rate. The government should rethink this deal,” said Singh.
Alleging that thousands of acres of land have been given to about 22 companies along the Tungabhadra river, he said that enroute Hospet and Ballari too, companies like Mittal and Brahmani Steels have been given land too. “These industries have been utilizing so much water that water scarcity is a regular affair here,” he said.
At the media briefing, where the netas were liberal in using terms like “sacrifice” and “serving the people of Ballari”, Singh raised the issue of JSW failing to provide jobs to locals and the development work taken up by it in the factory vicinity. Singh also lashed out at Sandur MLA and Medical Education Minister Tukaram for supporting the industry, saying that the minister is now talking of development.
Merely advising, not dissenting: H K Patil
While former minister H K Patil has been tweeting and embarassing the government, he objected to being called a dissident. How dare you consider me a dissident, my family is among those who built the Congress party. On the issue of going to the media on controversial issues, he said, “I have not embarrassed my party by speaking about JSW or IMA or Shudh Water.’’ I am only giving them advise. I don’t embarrass the party, I go before the government before I go before the people.