Farmers protested before the Suvarna Soudha here on Monday against the amendments to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
They shouted slogans against the Union and the State governments. The police took some protesters into custody and released them later.
Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Hasiru Sene demanded the repeal of the amendments alleging that they were against the interest of the farmers.
The earlier law had a provision to return land to farmers if it was not utilised for the purpose, for which it was acquired, in five years.
But the amendment does not have that clause. The acquired land remains with the government even if it is not utilised. Also, the old Act sought consent from 80% of affected farmers in case of private projects. Even that clause has been removed now, the protesters said.
The amendments brought in were only to favour the real estate industry, they said.
Though the Act had a provision for paying four times the market of value of the land, but now farmers don’t get a proper price as the value of the land has been pushed down by land dealers.
This registered price is taken as the market price by the government and even a four-fold increase does not reflect the actual market price.
They demanded that both the Union and State government to immediately drop all amendments brought to the Act failing which, the farmers would intensify their protest.
Ravi Siddammanavar, Satyappa Mallapur, Guru Somannavar, Mahantesh Hiremath, Bhimshi Gadade, Ganesh Eilgeri, Baramappa Khemalapure, and others led the strike.