Mangaluru
Former Minister and KPCC Vice-President B Ramanath Rai has urged District Administration and the state government to prepare an alternative plan for laying 400Kv overhead transmission power line as a part of Udupi–Kasaragod 400kv (Quad) D/c line project that passes through 17 villages in Dakshina Kannada.
Rai said that the powerline had been laid by Sterlite Power. Small and marginal farmers in Mangaluru and Bantwal taluks will face inconvenience if the power line passes through their land. The project is being implemented without taking farmers into confidence. Instead of laying the transmission power line on farmland, they can use underground cables by the side of NH 66 or by the side of the seashore from Padubidri to Kasaragod, Rai said.
He said the issue is not about compensation, but farmers want an alternative arrangement that could avoid the use of farmland. The Rural Electrical Corporation (REC) should make an alternative plan to lay the power line, he said. Many farmers, who were growing paddy have now shifted to arecanut, coconut and pepper cultivation. It may require at least 10 cents of land to construct a tower and the farmers will lose a major portion of their farmland, which is their source of livelihood. Farmers have been opposing the survey of land and they have been demanding the interference of the government for an alternative plan.
Shyam Prasad, convener of 400 KV Virodhi Horata Samithi said that the members have been fighting against the project for the last three and a half years. A farmer is losing 30 cents of land out of 50 cents of land which he owns. How can he cultivate the remaining 20 cents? Let them think of the latest technologies to lay the power line.
