Pledging his support to farmers who are resisting acquisition of their land for an integrated township in Bidadi, Union Minister H.D. Shivakumar for what he termed as “false propaganda” that the Bidadi township was a project initiated by the Deve Gowda family. He accused Mr. Shivakumar of forcibly vacating a person from Billakempanahalli who had built a hotel on the Bangalore–Mysore highway with a Karnataka Finance Corporation loan. Later, that property was purchased at a low price and a school was built on the same land, he alleged. He also alleged that Mr. Shivakumar had encroached upon land acquired around Hosakerehalli for the NICE Road project, as well as large tracts of land under the Bangalore–Mysore Expressway plan.