Villagers and panchayat members in Tumakuru have strongly opposed the proposal to merge 54 villages into the corporation.
Tumakuru
The proposal to include 54 villages from 14 gram panchayats into the Tumakuru City Corporation has drawn strong opposition from local representatives and rural leaders, who demanded that the plan be withdrawn immediately.
At a protest meeting organized in Tumakuru, State Gram Panchayat Mahasangha President Kadashettihalli Satish condemned the move, calling it a grave social injustice against villagers. He said urbanization efforts threaten to destroy village life and urged all gram panchayats to hold meetings and pass resolutions opposing the proposal. No one from the villages demanded this inclusion. Whose interest is it serving? he questioned, alleging that vested interests are behind the move.
Satish warned that merging villages into the corporation would push poor farmers and laborers into economic distress. Land prices will rise, taxes will increase, and only the wealthy will benefit, while the poor will lose their livelihoods, he said. He emphasized that such urban expansion would destroy the cultural and economic roots of villages, adding that Mahatma Gandhi believed India’s soul resides in its villages.
Satish also noted that merging would reduce local political representation drastically—from 290 panchayat members to just a handful in the corporation—depriving women and marginalized communities of political voice. He added that schemes like MGNREGA would vanish, resulting in large-scale job loss for rural workers.
District Gram Panchayat Federation President Doderi Vijayaprakash echoed these concerns, warning that taxes and levies would multiply once villages fall under city jurisdiction. Former municipal member K.P. Mahesh criticized the authorities for failing to improve areas already under the corporation’s limits and questioned the logic of adding more villages when basic amenities like roads and sanitation remain inadequate.
The meeting saw participation from several local leaders, former panchayat members, and activists, all united in their demand to preserve the identity and autonomy of Tumakuru’s surrounding villages.