BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who is on a renaming spree, has showed that he means business. During the Kempegowda jayanti on June 27, the CM had proposed the erection of a massive statue of the founder of Bengaluru, in front of the international airport named after him.
He also declared that the Bangalore University would be named after Kempegowda.
This time it is the turn of the hamlet where Kempegowda was buried.
Till about two years ago, Kempapura in Magadi taluk of Ramanagara district was a hamlet which did not have many basic amenities.
Soon after Kempegowda’s tomb was found here, real estate business started booming in the village situated 62-km from the state capital.
The tower-shaped tomb was found at Kempapura in September 2015. Later, BBMP authorities and senior political leaders including former PM H D Deve Gowda, Siddaramaiah and several ministers visited the spot. Later some historians and experts visited the spot and confirmed it as Kempegowda’s tomb.
The government then allotted `5 crore to develop the village and the Kempegowda Development Authority was constituted. In the 2016-17 budget, Siddaramaiah said the village would be developed under the Suvarna Grama scheme too.
Till then everything was normal. There are more than 10 villages around Kempapura including Janagere, Hosapalya, Thippansandra, Doddabushi, Valluru and others. Madhu, a farmer at Thippasandra, some 1.5 kms to Kempapura, said land prices have shot up. “The price of one acre of agricultural land, which was `25 lakh has crossed `55 lakh in our village. While land prices were increasing since several years, but in the last two years prices have become surprisingly high,’’ he said.
Lokesh, a farmer, said land prices have reached `70 lakh an acre from `35 lakh in 2015.