Deve Gowda heads farmers to Delhi rally

Bangalore, Mar 7(ANI): Hundreds of farmers from Karnataka under the leadership of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda boarded the train to New Delhi from Bangalore city railway station on Sunday evening.

Deve Gowda has organised a two-day protest rally in the national capital starting from Wednesday against the land acquisition for the Bangalore-Mysore infrastructure corridor project.

Addressing a news conference before boarding the train, Gowda noted that the Delhi rally is an extension of his fight against land acquisition for the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project, a fight that got an impetus after his profanity-laced outburst against state's chief B.S. Yeddyuraapa on the same issue.

"The problems of those who are suffering on account of so called Project Company, which is trying to grab as much land as possible, with the collusion of politicians, and with the collusion of some bureaucrats," Deve Gowda said.

"The project company wants to loot. We wanted to raise the problems of suffering farmers on national level, at least now," he added.

Deve Gowda alleged that the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Ltd. (NICE) - the private company implementing the project- is not interested in completing the project.

His apprehension is that NICE will sell the land that has been acquired for the BMIC project and exit the scene.

Deve Gowda along with leaders of left parties and farmers' representatives is scheduled to meet Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Lok Sabha Opposition Party Leader Sushma Swaraj and former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani. (ANI)