The Weekly
BSERVER An IIJNM Publication
Volume 16 Issue 14
Thursday, 19 January, 2017
Acres of farmland under legal melee since ’99
been distributed to the industries and MNC’s, but the land which was allotted to the poor under the scheme ‘grow more food’ has not been stated as legal yet and the people staying there will have to evacuate if the court passes thwe judgement. Advocate Vijayan (49), representing the farmers in this case, tells that the land was given to poor farmers and it is now being acquired and notified by KIADB.
Another example is the Bengaluru- Chennai expressway project in and around Karnataka Gold Field (KGF), near Kolar. Government has acquired 3,700 acres of farm land and farmers still continue to protest for their lands. Arkavathy layout is another project by the state government in Nagavara. More than 3,500 acres farm land were acquired. The government is trying to provide alternate lands for them in Nadaprabhu Kempegowda layout including the difference amount but people who are not willing to take it will have to wait for their allotment. The Land Acquisition Act, 1894 says there is a time duration for any project to start, and if it does not start within that, the land must be denotified and given back by the government. With the new Act expected shortly i.e. The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill 2015, farmers and other people will be able to agree or disagree on the projects recommended by the government which will help them to avoid complications and litigations.
On the question of why was it started again after two issues, Cho explained, “I wanted some time to think and see how I could tackle it. I was busy writing for underground magazines and addressing meetings. Then, I started interacting with Ramnath Goenka. I had nothing to lose at that time but not Goenka. Their courage is much greater than mine because I was a man with nothing to lose.” “I have no fear despite the threat of guns, death and acid attacks. Unless the almighty decides I can’t be killed. I will die the moment I change my writing ethics and professionalism, which can never happen,” shouted Cho in 1995 interviews. In 1992, during the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the magazine published a black cover again. Every year during the Pongal festival in Tamil Nadu, the annual meeting of Thuglak is held. The editor answers questions from the readers in person and explains any article that appeared in the paper using his background or knowledge on any them. During the first annual meetings, they did not ar-
range a big hall, not expecting a huge crowd. Raghunathan, an ardent fan of Cho’s writing, says “People flooded in from the Thiyagaraya Nagar bus stand till the end of that street. Although they did not have seating arrangements, they listened to Cho’s humorous dialogues that eased their pain.” Cho begins every meeting with his explanation on some verse of the Bhagavad Gita. Being a Sanskrit scholar, he had his own way of criticising leaders through slokas and verses from Hindu mythology. Recently, during the 47th Annual meet, his successor, Gurumoorthy, editor of Thuglak spoke about his responsibility and gift to hold Cho’s legacy. One of the speakers of this meet, Hindu N Ravi said “There are many facets of Cho. He was an uncompromising chairman of free speech. Many of the politicians were friends with Cho. Yet he spared no one who deviated from the national ethical norms.” The Prime minister, who addressed the audience through a video conference, said that “Cho’s death was a personal loss to him.
Abhilash Mariswamy abhilash.m@iijnm.org THIPPUR: More than ten thousand acres of farm lands have been notified since 1999 in Bangalore. Murthy (50), a farmer in Thippur near Bidadi, who owns 10 acres of land, has been notified by ‘The Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board’ (KIADB). KIADB issued a notice in 1989 acquiring more than 1916 acres of fertile agricultural land for the state government’s Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure (BMIC) project. It has been more than 20 years that the land was notified by KIADB, and there hasn’t been any construction since then. The farmers struggle because of their land being “KIADB-notified”. They cannot sell the land or invest a huge amount for farming in the land because they don’t know when they would lose their land to the authorities. The surrounding villages of Thippur, Gonipura, and Sigehalli also face the problem. Bhettiah (55), a farmer in Gonipura, said, “They face a serious financial problem and no banks are giving loans to them as the lands are ‘KIADB-notified’”. Ravi Thirlapur (45), special
A farmland under dispute in Thippur, Bangalore rural land acquisition officer, said, “The land value was negotiated long back but the farmers were not ready to sell their land. Now the rates have gone high and they are asking for the present land value. There is a lot of complication in this project.” “Exit clause that exists in the agreement is, the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE) Road has to pay the entire money and return the land if they
cannot fulfil the requirement or if they are not ready for the next phase of the project,” he added. He also said that there is a Supreme Court verdict to come in three months, “let us see what happens.” There has been a tiff going on since 1982 between the people living in Kadugodi and the revenue department over 711 acres of land. Already 385 acres of the land have been marked legal and have
His play Muhamed Bin Thuglak, criticising the Government, was played a 1000 times becoming his greatest success. “There was no one to direct it because it was controversial. Hence I had to direct”, said Cho in one of his interviews. Being a little facetious, the doors of the Tamil Cinema Industry were opened to him by veteran actors Shivaji Ganesan and Bhim Singh. He has acted in 185 tamil films in around 42 years. His knowledge in script writing helped him direct five films. He has also written and acted in 27 television serials and written ten books. He has acted with MG Ramachandran and Jayalalitha, who went on to become Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu. Cho was a down to earth person. A Tamil theatre artist known as “Crazy” Mohan, shared his experience in an interview, “It was raining heavily one night and we returned from an outstation to the city. We sought an auto to get back home. Suddenly, one auto driver saw Cho and fell down to his feet with a huge smile of happiness. Not knowing how to express that he wasn’t
that great of a human, Cho came down to the auto driver’s knees.” The Thuglak magazine included fierce reportage and had mocked many political leaders. The magazine is known for its pun intended cartoons. Following Indira Gandhi’s declaration o f
Legacy of Ramaswamy, The Rajaguru of Indian Politics Divya Ranganathan divya.r@iijnm.org Apart from his wildly successful career as a comedian, Srinivasa Iyer Ramaswamy, popularly known as “Cho”, was a multifaceted personality. Coming from a family of scholarly lawyers, he graduated in law from the University of Madras, followed by a stint as a legal advisor. One fine day in his twenties, he was compelled to watch a play with his friend. Impressed with the script and the theatre, Cho wrote a drama that night. Although it was rejected later, it was the first of his baby step into theatrics. He spent his evenings writing scripts, later suspending his career in law to concentrate on it full time. Cho has written 23 plays in Tamil, performing in over 5000 cities across South India. He was a man of great presence of mind and humour. His very face coupled with good timing and delivery, painted him as a hilarious comedian. When a controversy arose over the “english” names of his plays, he named his next play “Quo Wadis” in Latin.
Emergency, Cho fearlessly published the first post-Emergency Thuglak issue with an all black front cover to express protest. “Thuglak was the only journal in the country that predicted the ‘Emergency’ regime before it was imposed”, he said in one of his interviews. The publication was stopped for two issues and then was restarted again.