A proposal for a township near Bangalore as a lure to bring in huge investments from Japan is encountering opposition from farm and environmental groups.

Chidanandamurthy, a professor of Kannada and president of the Anti Japanese Township Forum, says the Japanese township project offers no advantages and will only exacerbate the state's problems.

Support for the model township has been coordinated mainly by N D Gangadhar, president of the Karnataka Small Scale Industries Assn.

State ministers are giving the agriculture sector a breather by ignoring the Prime Minister's call to stop subsidising power supply and agreeing instead to charge a minimum rate. But this, too, is being resisted by farmers.

Farmers in India are using 25 times the amount of water that agricultural scientists say is needed to produce paddy. Improper irrigation methods and misconceptions are the stated reasons for the high wastage of a scarce resource.