Unsavoury remark trigger noisy scene in Karntaka Council

Bangalore, Jul 11 (UNI) Noisy scene was witnessed in the Karnataka Legislative Council following a 'unsavory comment' made by the Minister for Large and Medium Industries Katta Subramanyam Naidu regarding the acquisition of farm land for the purpose of setting up of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the state.

The trouble started during question hour when Mr Naidu rose to reply to a question of Bharatiya Janata Party member Shobha Karandlaje, who had sought to know about the quantum of agricultural land that was being acquired by the state government for various SEZ proposals.

Congress member V S Ugrappa, objecting to Mr Naidu's reply charged that minister himself was involved in forcibly acquiring of valuable farm land from the farmers. This triggered strong protest from treasury benches. Enraged with the remark, the minister said the allegation was baseless and challenged Mr Ugrappa to prove it.

The house plunged into chaos following a remark made by the Minister on Congress members forcing Chairman of the house Prof B K Chandrashekar to declare that nothing would go to records.

Later the Minister announced that government was prepared to allow half-a-day discussion on the issue of acquisition of farm land for the proposals of Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and also wanted to present in the house on what was happening in other parts of the country over the SEZ issues.

The Minister said that as many as 14,438 acres of land had been acquired from farmers to develop SEZ's in different parts of the state. The Union government has not made it mandatory to set up SEZ's and there was no targets that had been set by the Centre, he said.

The Minister also said that as many as 230 farmers had sought a stay against the land acquisition proposal of the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB), state's nodal agency for acquisition of farm land for industrial purpose. The KIADB had paid Rs 223.84 crore as compensation for the land acquired since three years, he said.

Taking cognizance of intention of several members to speak on the issue, Prof Chandrashekhar promised to allow a special discussion on the issue.

UNI