The Tatas set up an earth-moving equipment manufacturing unit in 1980 on 600 acres that the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board.
BANGALORE: After Singur, the Tatas are set to face fresh opposition for acquiring land for industrial use in northern Karnataka.
The Tatas set up an earth-moving equipment manufacturing unit in 1980 on 600 acres that the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) allocated to it after acquiring it from farmers in Mummigatti village in Dharwad district.
Last week, the state government cleared another proposal to allot 300 acres of land more to the Tatas for setting up a Rs 2,734-crore project to set up a luxury bus-manufacturing unit in Neralagatti close to the first village.
But the farmers, who sold their lands in the first instance, are not happy. Nearly 1,500 of them, who had been promised fair prices and jobs for their family members, have received nothing. They have now formed an association-- the Land Losers Association -- to put forth their demands.
Siddhalinga Desai, president of the farmers' body said the villagers had no qualms about the company acquiring their land as long as they got good prices and jobs as compensation.
According to the villagers in Mummigatti, they had received just a few thousands of rupees an acre -many as little as Rs 3,000. The jobs they were given were those of storekeepers, technicians, gardeners and security guards that fetched them a pittance.
According to the villagers, among 3,000 in both the villages, only 30 have been employed in the technical wings of the company. The others are still scouting for jobs in the nearby factories to earn a square meal a day.
R F Patil, a farmer, who sold his two-acre land to the Tatas in 1980, said Telcon did not employ his two sons. As a result, both of them had to migrate to some other place for work. Unlike in Singur, the farmers in north Karnataka have no political backing to launch a campaign.
The price of an acre of land around the industrial area is Rs 2.5 lakh. "But the land only two kilometres towards the city is Rs 12 lakh per acre," Patil said.
Another graduate, Suhas Shilare, gave up the Telcon job since they paid him peanuts.
"I was employed as a store-keeper and was paid only Rs 2,000 per month. I quit Telcon to find a better job in Dharwad city," he said. No comments were forthcoming from the Tata companies.
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