New Village Without Land
Resettlement Colony Kalawar
January 2010, near Mangalore, Karnataka
Some of the people who have to leave their lands for the Special Economic Zone got compensation money to buy a house in a brand new
village, a 'R&R' (rehabilitation and resettlement) colony.
Nice houses, but no land. Now people have to buy everything on the market, what they got for free from their own garden earlier. Like fire
wood, all sorts of fruits, vegetables, coconuts, but also milk. Life has become much more expensive and more
artificial. People are more dependent of their jobs in town, of the goodwill of their bosses. Their autonomy has gone.
Small temple.
A brand new mosque is build.
From the national newspaper The Hindu
Unable to buy farmland, woman ends life
She lost five acres of land at Moodabidri after her brothers sold it to MSEZ
"MOODABIDRI/MANGALORE, September 16, 2009. A 44-year-old woman, who was displaced from her farm in Bajpe by the Phase-I of the Mangalore Special Economic Zone
project, committed suicide recently because she could not come to terms with the loss of her prime agricultural land.
Kasturi Shetty hanged herself to death at her new residence at Doddamane area of Moodabidri on September 13, three months after she moved in there
with her husband Shekar Shetty and two daughters.
(..) The police said Ms. Shetty took the extreme step after having failed to buy a piece of land at Moodabidri. "She wanted to purchase the
land but she felt the price was too high," the police said."
* * *
MSEZ: displaced people stage protest
They demand infrastructure and civic amenities at rehabilitation colony
The Hindu - "MANGALORE, November 9, 2009. Proponents of the Mangalore Special Economic Zone Ltd suffered a major embarrassmentt on
Saturday when the residents staged a protest at the rehabilitation colony in Kulai, where the company had organised a grand programme.
The programme was organised to inaugurate the colony's main sewage treatment plant and mark the beginning of the distribution of
property title deeds to the residents of the colony, who have been displaced by the Phase-I of the project.
(..) Jairam Shetty, a resident said that contrary to what had appeared in some sections of the media, the colony had no school, bus
stop, shopping complex, post office and children's park.
Sadashiva Bhandary (51), who was displaced from Kalavaru said, 'They moved us out in a hurry because they wanted to start their
project work. But they have not yet provided us with civic amenities that were promised.'"
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