Deve Gowda Demands GBIT Project Scrap After Mandalahalli Land Survey Violence

On Tuesday, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda urged Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar to withdraw the Greater Bengaluru Integrated Township (GBIT) project, following violent clashes during a land acquisition survey in Mandalahalli, located in the Bengaluru South district.

The clash, which occurred on Monday, left a police inspector and a survey official injured and led the state government to temporarily withhold the survey.

During a news conference on Tuesday, Deve Gowda stated that 82 percent of the 10,580 people who stand to lose their land to the GBIT project are small-time farmers. He highlighted that 2,555 of these farmers own less than five guntas of land, warning that thousands of families would face severe hardship if the government proceeded with the land acquisition.

The JD(S) leader also released a letter he had sent to Shivakumar in the last week of June, in which he questioned why the GBIT project had been exempted from a social impact study.

In his letter, Deve Gowda argued that the project is unnecessary. He pointed out that the Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout and Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout, developed by the Bangalore Development Authority, are currently lying vacant because sites have not been distributed. He also noted that the state government has already decided to construct six layouts across 6,217 acres along the Bengaluru Business Corridor.

Deve Gowda warned that if the government refuses his request to scrap the project, he will launch a satyagraha protest in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue at the Vidhana Soudha.

The demand follows a violent confrontation on Monday, when Mandalahalli residents attacked officials from the Joint Measurement Committee who had arrived to conduct the land survey. Protesters allegedly carried stones and brooms, abused and threatened officials, and prevented them from performing their duties.

Following the clash, the Bidadi police registered two FIRs against the villagers on Tuesday. One FIR, filed by a police officer, is directed against unknown farmers. The second FIR, filed by the driver of one of the vehicles attacked by the villagers, names 10 residents alongside other unidentified individuals.