Residents launch indefiniteprotest seeking houses

Seeking specific assurance on handing over houses built for them in lieu of those lost for expansion of Hubballi Airport, residents of Jagadish Nagar Ashraya Colony began an indefinite day-and-night dharna in Dharwad on Thursday. The residents staged a semi-nude protest on the first day of the protest.

Raising slogans against government officials and elected representatives, they said that their repeated pleas to both had not evoked any response and that they were being forced to undergo hardships despite having consented to give up their houses for a development project.

The protestors, led by Premanath Chikkatumbal, Venkatesh Desai, Erappa Jogi, Subhash Meharwade, Nagaraj and Girish Ballari, said that 16.10 acres of land of the Ashraya Colony was acquired for construction of the Hubballi Airport in 2006 and later, an additional 4.10 acres of land was acquired for upgradation.

They said that 188 families which had given up houses for the upgradation project had been neglected by the authorities concerned and there had been inordinate delay in giving what was due to them. After a series of protests and pleas, it was decided to construct Ashraya houses for the displaced people and the construction took almost three years to be completed. Now, despite having completed the construction, the houses were not being allotted to the displaced families and the authorities were just postponing allotment on one pretext or the other, they said.

The protestors said that unless the district administration gave written assurance on handing over the houses to the displaced families, they would continue their agitation.

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