BJP, JD(S) write to Rahul Gandhi: ‘Ask your CM to halt Bidadi township project until farmers heard’

Later, Nikhil released a Cabinet note where the finance department raised concerns about implementing the project under the public-private partnership (PPP) model and recommended the engineering, procurement, and construction model instead. The note also raised the issue of loans taken for the project and questioned the purpose behind acquiring all the required land in one go.

In his letter to Gandhi, Nikhil noted that the state government had already issued a notification for acquiring 498.34 acres of land, most of it from marginal and poor farmers. “The state government is planning a massive expansion to forcefully notify and swallow up 9,600 acres of fertile land in the region. If this corporate expansion is not halted right now, thousands more families will be permanently uprooted,” the JD(S) leader said.

Vijayendra wrote that residents of 25 villages where the integrated township is expected to come up have been protesting for 470 days. “More than 3,500 small and marginal landholders have submitted written objections through proper channels, asking only to be heard. And yet, your CM did not see fit to hold even a single public hearing on the matter. The consent of these farmers was set aside entirely, and the final notification was pushed through regardless of their objections,” he wrote to Gandhi.

Vijayendra asked the Congress leader to “take a public position on this matter and direct your Chief Minister to halt this acquisition until the farmers of Bidadi have been genuinely heard, their objections examined, and a fair, transparent process is put in place”.

While rebranding the proposed Bidadi township—considered a pet project of Shivakumar—as an AI City, the Congress government said it was first mooted when Kumaraswamy was the chief minister. The government has announced that all notifications for acquiring land will be issued by the end of June, after which farmers will get compensation.