Udupi: The members of the Udupi taluk unit of All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWU) staged a dharna in front of the City Municipal Council office here on Tuesday demanding sites for the poor. Venkatesh Koni, AIAWU leader, said that though the poor beneficiaries had submitted their applications seeking sites for construction of the houses four years ago, no action had been taken.

According to written information given by the council to the AIAWU, the former had received 3,695 applications seeking sites. Under the Nagar Niveshana scheme, it had set a target of providing 600 sites in vacant government areas such as Shivally, Puttur and Herga. But not a metre of land had been provided to the poor. Since land was scarce in the city, the council had said that it would construct two-storied buildings and provide flats to the poor. But this too has not been implemented. For those insistent on sites, it had said that it would ask surrounding gram panchayats to identity for them.

The authorities should stick to the assurance given in an official review meeting that sites would be provided to 911 beneficiaries in Udupi city and surrounding gram panchayats in Udupi Assembly Constituency.

Though the Assistant Commissioner of Kundapur Sub-Division had provided 1.9 acres of land in Puttur village for distribution of sites, the council had so far not taken action to distribute them. This should be done immediately. Even the Udupi Urban Development Authority was guilty of not providing sites to the poor beneficiaries, Mr. Koni said. Nagaratna, Padmavati Shetty, Raju Padukone, S. Kaviraj, Dasu Bhandary, Balakrishna Shetty, AIAWU leaders, were present.

After receiving the memorandum from the protesters, Chandra Poojary, Revenue Officer, said the council had identified 9 acres of land in Herga and 1.66 acres of land in Shivally for distribution of sites for 595 beneficiaries.