'Most farmers okay with land acquisition'
Express News Service 11 Jan 2010 04:52:00 AM IST
HUBLI: Murugesh Nirani, Minister for Medium and Large Scale Industries has claimed that 90 percent of the farmers, whose land have been identiified for expansion of Hubli airport, had little problem with the price fixed by the district administration.
Nirani, who is also the District In- Charge Minister, was speaking to reporters here on Sunday. He alleged that there are only a few people who are opposing the government price and slammed them for blowing the issue out of proprtions.
The Minister claimed that the government had been offering ‘an appropriate and a good price’ for the land as part of acquisition for the development and expansion of Hubli airport. “As per the government’s guidelines, we are offering the farmers a price that is more than the market value. The demand by some farmers to fix price for the land on par with Bangalore and other parts of the state is not fair and not practical,” he said.
He pointed out that the development and expansion of Hubli airport would pave way for overall development of the North-Karnataka region. ‘‘This is a very important project. All have to extend support to the government in its endeavour to develop the region,” he said. Nirani appealed to the farmers to cooperate with the government in the acquisition process.
Referring to the suggestion made by some MLAs of the region to go for a separate international airport between Dharwad and Belgaum to ensure the growth of the region in the next 50 to 100 years, Nirani said that since the government had already taken the decision to develop the Hubli airport to international standards, the suggestion is not practical at this juncture.
He said that non-availability of land in Dharwad was the main reason for Tata’s Nano project not being set up in the state.
