MLA’s action surprises farmers who lost land to road works

Belagavi: The issue of the sewage treatment plant (STP) being built at Halaga is heating-up with Belagavi rural MLA Laxmi Hebbalkar and district minister Satish Jarkiholi locking the horns once again after the PLD bank elections.
While Hebbalkar is seen fighting for the cause of farmers whose 19 acres have been acquired for the STP, her stand has surprised several other farmers in her constituency who have lost their land for central government works including the Ring Road and Halaga-Macche bypass road.
Belagavi City Corporation (BCC) has acquired 18 acres at Halaga attached to the Pune-Bengaluru national highway-4 to set-up the STP. BCC is under pressure from the Karnatatka State Pollution Control Noard and the green bench for releasing untreated sewage water to Bellary Nala which later joins the Markandeya river. Building the STP is seen as a solution for this problem.
The project was delaying for the past seven years after farmers approached the court. Last week, BCC commenced work with police protection. Laxmi Hebbalkar was irked as BCC did not take her and the farmers into confidence before starting work on the STP.
On Thursday, Hebbalkar had given two days to district minister Satish Jarkiholi to take a delegation to the CM over the Halaga land issue. She had even warned of launching a Singur type agitation if necessary.
Jarkiholi later clarified that the local MLA should convince farmers not to oppose public interest projects and there was a provision to pay compensation up to Rs 30 lakh per acre to the farmers.
Meanwhile, the tough stand taken by Hebbalkar over Halaga land issue has surprised hundreds of farmers in her own constituency. These farmers are losing large tracts of land for road works and they say the MLA has not spoken a single work in their favour so far.
These farmers have been protesting for several months and have not got any response from either MLA Hebbalkar or officials. They took out several rallies to the DC office but in vain. They say that their land was acquired without showing any mercy and that work was started under police security without even disclosing the amount of compensation the farmers would get.
These farmers allege that Hebbalkar, who is agitating against the STP by camping on the site, intentionally neglected the farmers who lost hundreds of acres of land for the road projects.
When contacted, Hebbalkar said she doesn’t differentiate among the farmers and added that all farmers should get justice.