Thousands march against land acquisition for ISPRL

Udupi, December 19: Over 3,000 villagers from Kalathur, Kuthyaru and Paadur on Monday took out a protest march on the streets of Udupi, to demand the chief minister to drop the proposal to acquire 700 acres of land for the second stage of Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL).

Jana Jagruthi Samithi, Kalathur, had organized the protest. Honorary President of the Samithi Gurme Suresh Shetty, General Secretary Lawrence Fernandies, convener Nithyananda R Shetty, Kuthyaru Prasad Shetty led the protest march.

MLAs Raghupathi Bhat, Lalaji R Mendon, former minister Vasanth V Salian, District BJP President Uday Kumar Shetty, JD(S) President Deviprasad Shetty and others participated in the protest jatha and assured to be with the people in their protest and appraise the government of the hardships they have to face.

In the morandum they said in the first week of December, ISPRL personnel were seen doing the survey in 700 acres of agricultural land in the Kalathur village, saying the government had already allotted the land to them.

The works of the ISPRL in Paadur village were on in 200 acres of land acquired by the KIADB for the purpose of storing crude petroleum oil under ground. The residents of the village had agreed for acquisition of 200 acres of land two years back, as the project was in the interest of the nation.

At that time the promoters of the project and officials of the project had said that 200 acres of land would be sufficient for the project.

But now handing over their agricultural land to ISPRL without serving any notices to them was unfair and illegal. If the second stage was allowed in the region, asmany as 200 families would have to lose their property and livelihood, requesting the government to drop the acquisition process for the second stage of ISPRL, in their villages.