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Udipi farmers` land taken over for thermal power plant

Udipi farmers` land taken over for thermal power plant in october 2006, 150 farmers of Yellur village in Udupi district of Karnataka lost 195 hectares (ha) of land. According to Janajagrithi Samiti, a local ngo, the Udupi tehsildar K Muralidhar mutated the certificate of rights in the village title register on verbal instructions from the district collector.

"The collector was under a lot of pressure from state authorities to expedite the project. On November 11, security forces reached the plant site to enable npcl to lay the foundation stone,' said Balakrishna Shetty, executive president of the samiti.

A 1,015- mw thermal power plant will be set up on the land by the Nagarjuna Power Corporation Limited (npcl) of Hyderabad (see