• Says will end  lives if govt goes ahead acquiring lands

Karwar: The villagers of Algeri in Ankola taluk have opposed the survey being conducted for the proposed civil airport in their village and have threatened to end their lives in case the government thinks of acquiring their lands for the proposed project.

Speaking to media persons, who visited the village on Friday, Vinod Goankar, a villager, said that the people of Algeri lost their original lands to the Sea Bird project 25 years back. After the land acquisition for the Sea Bird project, they were shifted to Algeri. So now, they were not ready to lose their land again and shift to another village for the airport. “Most of the houses in the village use firewood even today. Women of the village gather firewood from a hill which is five kilometer away from the village and get it carrying on their head. They earn a living by selling this wood. An airport here will disturb their livelihood”, Goankar said.

He added that it was not right to acquire 200 acres of land for the airport here as most of them living here were poor.