Thread by @leofsaldanha

When Siddaramaiah was campaigning to win, farmers affected by the most controversial Dr. Shivarama Karanth Layout #sklayout met with him and urged him to support their cause.

About 3500 acres of their fertile & highly biodiverse farmland was being acquired under colonial Land Acquisition Act 1894 for the most environmentally destructive & massive urban expansion into the Arkavathy River watershed to the north of Bangalore. See: tinyurl.com/StopSKLayoutMa…

This is a project of @BDABangalore aggressively pushed by @SRVishwanathBJP as Chairman of the parastatal (thus undemocratic) agency. Siddaramaiah assured farmers that he would ensure there is fairness extended to their cause if @INCIndia came to power.

@BDABangalore @SRVishwanathBJP @INCIndia Sure it has now, and with a thumping majority. And @siddaramaiah and @DKShivakumar have just decided to work together for the betterment of the state. See: deccanherald.com/election/karna…

@BDABangalore @SRVishwanathBJP @INCIndia @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar But while all this is going on, @MahindraRi62455 farm in Mavallipura, just north of Yelahanka, is occupied by a massive police force deployed by @CPBlr . There are bulldozers deployed to raze everything down.

@BDABangalore @SRVishwanathBJP @INCIndia @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar @MahindraRi62455 @CPBlr I have worked with Rina since 2007 when she questioned the reckless expansion of Bengaluru that was being promoted for one reason or another.

@BDABangalore @SRVishwanathBJP @INCIndia @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar @MahindraRi62455 @CPBlr Based on @esgindia1 's advocacy for planned and deeply democratic development of metropolis, she has systematically worked to make the case how her farm has been repeatedly attacked by draconian laws. And she has fought back.

@BDABangalore @SRVishwanathBJP @INCIndia @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar @MahindraRi62455 @CPBlr @esgindia1 Rina has also been in the forefront of the struggle led by Leader Mavalipura Srinivas Ramesh Mariyappa and several others of Dalit Sangarsh Samithi against the illegal dumping of the city's waste in forest and commons of Mavallipura. tinyurl.com/CrematingCOVID…

@BDABangalore @SRVishwanathBJP @INCIndia @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar @MahindraRi62455 @CPBlr @esgindia1 In a fair world, a person like Rina would be regarded by the Government in power. State and civic bodies would carefully listen to what she and hundreds of other farmers have to say about the destructive expansion of a metropolis which has lost sight of why it even is expanding.

@BDABangalore @SRVishwanathBJP @INCIndia @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar @MahindraRi62455 @CPBlr @esgindia1 In this case, the BDA has absolutely no reason to expand to the north, especially because this is the region where #Arkavathy courses through to get into #TGHalli reservoir from where #Bangalore gets some of its drinking water. deccanherald.com/video/city/ben…

@BDABangalore @SRVishwanathBJP @INCIndia @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar @MahindraRi62455 @CPBlr @esgindia1 Rina's is also the only stud farm left in the entire State of Karnataka. A tradition of rearing extraordinary horses that was mastered by #TipuSultan survives because of Rina and her family. facebook.com/profile.php?id…

But as a last laugh, Vishwanath wants to destroy this farm.

@BDABangalore @SRVishwanathBJP @INCIndia @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar @MahindraRi62455 @CPBlr @esgindia1 Perhaps it's his idea of a pyrrhic victory over Tipu Sultan who @BJP4India demonises because he is Muslim?

@BDABangalore @SRVishwanathBJP @INCIndia @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar @MahindraRi62455 @CPBlr @esgindia1 @BJP4India A party that doctored the claim under @narendramodi that Sultan was a traitor to the State (remember #UriGowda and #NanjeGowda fiasco?), & erases from school text books the fact that Tipu held back the British valiantly three times, whilst also defending several Hindu mutts &…

@BDABangalore @SRVishwanathBJP @INCIndia @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar @MahindraRi62455 @CPBlr @esgindia1 @BJP4India @narendramodi …temples.

If Dr. Shivarama #Karanth were alive, he would be in the forefront demanding this controversial layout in his name is scrapped.

@BDABangalore @SRVishwanathBJP @INCIndia @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar @MahindraRi62455 @CPBlr @esgindia1 @BJP4India @narendramodi He would stand in front of bulldozers that are razing farms that have been carefully crafted over generations to provide us healthy food, milk, meat, flowers, vegetables and more.

@BDABangalore @SRVishwanathBJP @INCIndia @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar @MahindraRi62455 @CPBlr @esgindia1 @BJP4India @narendramodi He would have been livid with Mr. Siddaramaiah for allowing this to happen even as he has now become the Chief Minister of Karnataka and Mr. Shivakumar Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka.

All these two leaders need to do now is to make a call and stop the carnage.

@BDABangalore @SRVishwanathBJP @INCIndia @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar @MahindraRi62455 @CPBlr @esgindia1 @BJP4India @narendramodi Yes, @BSBommai is still Caretaker CM. But nothing stops the new leaders from taking the right action to pull the police back, & stop what will soon be yet another draconian employment of the archaic, colonial and illegal Land Acquisition Act 1894.

@BDABangalore @SRVishwanathBJP @INCIndia @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar @MahindraRi62455 @CPBlr @esgindia1 @BJP4India @narendramodi @BSBommai After all was it not @Jairam_Ramesh as Rural Development Minister of India a decade ago who brought into law the Land Acquisition Relief and Rehabilitation Act, 2013, guaranteeing justice and fairness to farmers?

@BDABangalore @SRVishwanathBJP @INCIndia @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar @MahindraRi62455 @CPBlr @esgindia1 @BJP4India @narendramodi @BSBommai @Jairam_Ramesh What use is this new law if Congress allows it to be trampled by the brutality of LAA 1894, and thus setting the worst precedent for a new government.

@BDABangalore @SRVishwanathBJP @INCIndia @siddaramaiah @DKShivakumar @MahindraRi62455 @CPBlr @esgindia1 @BJP4India @narendramodi @BSBommai @Jairam_Ramesh All this while the matter is sub judice and BDA is under notice from the Karnataka High Court to NOT precipitate the matter without its prior approval.

@dineshgrao @rajeevgowda @krishnabgowda #sklayout

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