However, they can be used to irrigate plants of high salt tolerance such as barely, sugarbeet, tobacco, mustard, cotton, sugarcane, when grown on previously salty soils to protect against further decline of fertile lands (Rao 2006).
They are also familiar with the urban way of life: "It is too fast and too stressful," says 60-year-old Abhay Narayan Rao, who looks after 25 acres of land while his sons work in multinational corporations in Mumbai.
"The local people are very happy because it has made use of barren land," said Seshagiri Rao, an environmental researcher who lives in Pavagada.
"Why are our fertile farm lands being taken away?" Rao's older son wants to return to the village and involve himself in agriculture – which is not such a surprise here.
A Rao's regular, and Baldoria investor, he landed a 20-year lease in a defunct theatrical hangout, Wally's and Joseph's.
Neither is Rao in a hurry to sell the land near the Delhi airport.
Relations between Reddy and Desai soon soured over the latter's promotion of his son, Kanti Desai, in politics and over Desai's communication with Chief Ministers Vengala Rao and Channa Reddy on the issue of land ceilings in Andhra Pradesh.
Twenty years ago, Dharuhera was a quiet village of famers, who mostly worked on the lands of the local feudal lords, the Rao clan.
Y. Bhaskar Rao, the former chief justice of Karnataka State, filled the position that had been vacant for more than a year after his predecessor, Justice Shivraj V. Patil, was forced to resign following accusations of corruption in land deals.
SHREWSBURY Guild of Creative Art "New Jersey — Land and Sea," watercolors by Lisa Grob and oils by Pratima Rao.
