Bengaluru: HD Deve Gowda threatens to stage dharna as farmer resistance to AI township builds up

Bengaluru: Resistance to Chief Minister DK Shivakumar’s ambitious AI township project, officially called greater Bengaluru integrated township, in his home district of Bengaluru South is growing by the day, including from within the ruling Congress.

On Tuesday, JDS veteran HD Deve Gowda threatened to sit on a dharna in front of Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat, in Bengaluru if the CM does not drop the project forthwith. The project, estimated at over Rs 18,200 crore and requiring 7481 acres spread across nine villages of Ramanagara and Harohalli villages, has triggered widespread protests from farmers, with the CM emerging as the sole warrior defending it.

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Gowda, a former PM, on Tuesday, told the media that the CM has not bothered to reply to his 11-page letter. In his letter, the former PM questioned the need for a new township when thousands of plots remain unsold in the Dr. Shivaram Karanth Layout and Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout, while the BDA is already planning six additional layouts near the Bengaluru Business Corridor.

Gowda wondered if the township project was one of those promises the CM made to the party high command before replacing Siddaramaiah as CM.

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His son, union minister HD Kumaraswamy told the media in Delhi that the CM was using the police to foist false cases against farmers and wondered why he was so keen to push the project despite so much protest from landowners. The Union Minister said the project site fell under the fertile swathes of farmland, and the CM could explore developing his township in areas of dry land.