There was much hope when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the India Foodpark, spread across 114 acres within the Vasantha Narasapur Industrial Area, near Tumakuru, on September 24, 2014. It was believed that it would not only help farmers add to their income, but also generate as many as 10,000 jobs by 2018 here.
There were similar hopes when Mr. Modi laid the foundation stone for a helicopter manufacturing unit of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) at Bidarehalla Kaval in Gubbi taluk on January 3, 2016. He had said that more than 4,000 families would get jobs directly or indirectly from it, and that the first helicopter manufactured at this unit would fly by 2018.
These promises, however, are yet to be met, even as the Prime Minister made one more visit to the city recently. In fact, farmers who gave up their land for both these projects say they are in distress because even as they have lost their traditional livelihood, nothing new has been realised.
In a dismal state
According to the Factories and Boilers Department, the number of units with more than 10 workers in Vasantha Narasapur Industrial Area is 67; the total number of employees is about 4,500.
A visit to the food park reveals that there are 14 units making products such as chips, rice flour, chutney powder, ketchup, wafers, and bakery items. As many as 1,050 people work there.
A member of the Vasantha Narasapur Industries’ Association said that agricultural produce is not necessarily being procured from farmers and processed and marketed as assured by Mr. Modi.
Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sanga district president A. Govindaraju said that while farmers have lost their lands, the promise of big job generation for their children is yet to be met. “Also, nothing is purchased from the local farmers,” he said.
Siddappa, a farmer from Kanchenahalli, told The Hindu that his 3.5 acres of land, on which he was growing 30 quintals of ragi a year, was acquired for the industrial area, but it remains vacant even now. “Nothing has been built on it. And I cannot cultivate it either.” He said he was paid ₹16 lakh an acre. “I thought my son, who has studied engineering, would land a job in the industrial area, but that too has not happened,” he said.
This seems to have made other farmers weary. A couple, Nagaraj and Shivamma, who own five acres and eight guntas of land near NH4, are not willing to take ₹50 lakh an acre and move out.
Delayed takeoff
As far as the helicopter wing goes, HAL has built a compound around the 610 acres of land acquired for it and a few administrative buildings have come up. However, the copter manufacturing unit is yet to be functional.
Mr. Govindaraju said that for the project, the authorities had evicted more than 60 bagair hukum farmers’ families who were cultivating on the government land for several years. As they were unauthorised cultivators, they have not got compensation.
M.M. Umesh, a farmer from Marashettihalli, said he had been cultivating on four acres of land for the past 30 years, but compensation was given only to people with documents. “Now, I work as an agricultural labourer and earn ₹400 a day. With this meagre amount, it is very difficult to educate my two sons,” he said.
The issue is now in a legal wrangle, with all the bagair hukum farmers approaching the High Court.
Deputy Commissioner K. Rakesh Kumar said that all those who had “saguvali chits”, or certificates of grant to beneficiary, have got alternative land and compensation. “If they do not have proper documents for the land they were cultivating, compensation cannot be given,” he said. He added that skilled positions can be given only to those who have the required qualification for it, whereas unskilled positions can be given to anyone. He insisted that local people had got jobs in the industrial area.
