Do not take land from farmers for SEZ: Congress

Bangalore, June 21 (UNI) The Congress in Karnataka today demanded that the state government should not take away lands from farmers for setting up SEZs at Nandagudi.

Opposition Leader in the Karnataka Assembly Dharam Singh told newspersons here that Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy was 'playing with the life of the farmers'.

''The Chief Minister had recently convened a meeting of farmers to hear their grievances and made lot of promises to end their woes.

However to the shock of the farming community he had announced the formation of new SEZ near Bangalore,'' he alleged.

He urged the government to hand over the government land identified for the proposed SEZ to Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to develop residential layouts.

''The JD(S)-BJP coalition government during its 16 months tenure has failed to solve the housing crisis in Bangalore city,'' he alleged.

Terming the recent farmer's convention held by Chief Minister as the ''meeting of Kumaraswamy fans'', Mr Singh said no fruitful results emerged from it.

Referring to Kalasa-Banduri drinking water project, Mr Singh said the project was planned by the previous Congress government and the NDA government at the Centre had stayed its execution.

He was confident that the UPA government would give accord to the project.

UNI