Over 50 detained as farmers block Bidadi-Harohalli Road over township project

More than 50 people, among them several women farmers, were detained on Friday after a protest against the Greater Bengaluru Integrated Township, commonly referred to as the Bidadi township project, escalated into a road blockade near Bairamangala Circle in Bengaluru South district.

Over 100 people had gathered at the circle, where farmers began a hunger strike and blocked the Bidadi-Harohalli Road, severing connectivity between Bidadi and Harohalli. Tractors and bullock carts were parked across the carriageway, cattle were tethered along its edges, and a Ganesha pandal was erected in the middle of the road.

When Bidadi police arrived in the afternoon and asked the protesters to clear the stretch, they refused. Additional personnel, including women staff, were deployed and a police bus was brought to the spot, but several protesters lay down on the road and would not move.

A senior police officer said the situation grew tense after farmers willing to give up their land for the project reached the location and entered into arguments with those protesting. Members of both groups were detained, the officer said, adding that no decision had been taken on registering a first information report. The protesting farmers accused the police of attempting to silence them.

The demonstration was directed at what the farmers described as the slow progress of a state-appointed committee re-examining the project, as well as the conditions it has fixed for farmers to present their views. The panel, headed by Guhanathan Narendar, a former judge of the High Court of Karnataka and former Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court, has said it will hear objections on September 30 and October 1.

Farmers must register at the deputy tahsildar's office by submitting Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC) documents along with Aadhaar cards before appearing before the committee. Yashavantha T., State general secretary of the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha, said many farmers do not possess RTCs for a range of reasons, and that making the documents mandatory would shut them out of the consultation.

Separately, farmers from Devanahalli and Doddaballapur submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner of Bengaluru Rural opposing land acquisition for General Industrial Area Phase-3, proposed by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board. Nagaraj Govindappa, a resident of Koira village near Devanahalli, said the board had proposed acquiring about 1,200 acres across five villages. He said the land falls within the Arkavati basin and cannot be acquired, and that the Deputy Commissioner had assured them the matter would be examined.