The Hindu 03.02.2010
UAS hands over three acres of land to CMC
Staff Correspondent
| The private bus stand will be shifted there and a shopping mall will come up on the present bus-stand area |
In lieu of the land surrendered Government has promised UAS eight acres of land
It is the area adjacent to the Agriculture Research Station in Ponnampet
A new Development: Madikeri CMC president P.D. Ponnappa performing bhoomi puja on Tuesday after receiving three acres of land from the UAS for the construction of the private bus-stand in Madikeri.
Madikeri: The University of Agriculture Sciences (UAS) representative N.A. Prakash handed over three acres of land that belongs to the UAS on Tuesday to the Madikeri City Municipal Council (CMC) authorities for the construction of a private bus-stand.
Mr. Prakash, the Dean of the College of Forestry at Ponnampet in Kodagu, was deputed by the UAS, Bangalore, to facilitate the handing over the three acres of land for the construction of the private bus-stand. The president of the CMC P.D. Ponnappa, Commissioner Srikanth Rao, Chairman of the Works Committee of the CMC Prakash and Councillors K.T. Baby Mathew, Rani Machaiah and Unnikrishnan were present on the occasion. A survey was conducted later to mark the land for fencing.
Efforts made by the elected representatives in the last one and half decade to secure appropriate land for shifting the congested private bus-stand in the city had failed. The UAS had firmly refused to hand over land for the purpose of private bus stand project. The UAS authorities had earlier rejected the request for release of land on the grounds that research was being done on paddy varieties grown on the identified land. The research works on “blast” disease in paddy had won international recognition, it had said. If lands were handed over, the UAS would have to curtail its research activities, it had maintained.
However, in a meeting held on July 28, 2009, which was chaired by Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa in Bangalore, it was decided that in lieu of the three acres of land, the Government would release to the UAS eight acres of land next to the Agriculture Research Station in Ponnampet. That land belongs to the Department of Horticulture.
Subsequently, at the UAS Board meeting held on August 18, 2009, the members endorsed the order of the Chief Minister to hand over three acres of land under survey number 405/2 to the CMC in lieu of the transfer of the eight acres of land adjacent to the Agriculture Research Station in Ponnampet.
Mr. Prakash told presspersons here that three acres had been handed over to the CMC as per the Government instructions and hoped the Government would release the eight acres in Ponnampet at the earliest.
Mr. Srikanth Rao said that preliminary works would start in two-months time. A shopping mall would come up at the current private bus-stand area.
Mr. Ponnappa said a sum of Rs. one crore had been earmarked for the project in the first phase of the Rs. 15-crore grant given to the CMC under the Chief Minister’s Small and Medium Towns Development Project (CMSMTDP) this year. In the second phase, Rs. two crore would be earmarked for the private bus-stand.
