Cradle of land reforms is now hotbed of communal politics'

June 17, 2012

Bangalore, June 17: Speakers at a meeting organised to pay tributes to the departed freedom fighter and Communist Party of India leader B V Kakkilaya, here, on Saturday, expressed concern over the recent adverse social and political developments in Karnataka.

Former minister B A Mohideen lamented that the new generation of the political and social leaders have failed to adopt the values of broad-minded leaders like Kakkilaya.

He said that coastal district of Dakshina Kannada, which once had leaders like Kakkilaya and was the cradle of land reforms, has now turned into the hotbed of communal politics.

G N Nagaraj of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said that the stage was set for “strangling” the progressive provisions of the legislation in the next session of the Legislative Assembly by making it easy for people who are not farmers to buy agricultural land and increasing the land ceiling. The amendment, he added, would sound the death knell of small and marginal farmers and make way for companies to grab land.

He said that the role of decades-long struggle of Communists in giving a progressive edge to the Land Reforms Act in Karnataka was not given its due while chronicling the history of reforms in the State. Mr. Kakkilaya was the “spirit” of that struggle led by the undivided Communist party, he added.

Writer and editor of the magazine Hosatu, G. Ramakrishna, said that people like Kakkilaya could work overlooking factional differences, which was something that political activists today have to draw lessons from.

National Secretary of the Communist Party of India S. Sudhakar Reddy also spoke.

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Waqf land: Karnataka govt warns action against officials issuing eviction notice to farmers

News Network

November 10,2024

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has warned that disciplinary action will be taken against those officials who change the land mutation records and serve eviction notices to farmers under the Waqf Act.

In a letter, the Revenue Department Principal Secretary Rajender Kumar Kataria reminded all regional commissioners and deputy commissioners in the districts that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah recently had a meeting following complaints about certain land properties being made in favour of the Karnataka Board of Waqfs.

In the meeting it was decided that all the directions issued previously by any government office or authority to change the mutation records has been withdrawn, the letter said.

It added that all the notices served in the past have also been withdrawn and no action should be taken against the farmers who are cultivating on the said land.

On the directions of the chief minister, the previous letters and the latest reminders served on November 7 to the farmers and land owners have been withdraw, the letter said.

"The officials who served reminder-2 despite the chief minister's direction will face appropriate disciplinary action," Kataria said in his letter.

He said he has been instructed to strictly implement the chief minister's direction.

The fresh direction was issued in poll-bound Karnataka, where bypolls to three crucial assembly segments are due on November 13.

Some farmers in Honwad village in Vijayapura in north Karnataka had alleged last month that they were served eviction notices as the Waqf Board claimed rights over it.

Subsequently, complaints started in pouring in from some other parts of the state.

BJP leader Tejasvi Surya on October 25 alleged that Karnataka Waqf Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan directed the deputy commissioners and revenue officials to register lands in favour of the Waqf Board within 15 days, which resulted in confusion.

On Surya's request, the Chairman of the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, Jagdambika Pal visited Karnataka on November 7 and met farmers in Hubballi, Vijayapura and Belagavi districts who had alleged that their lands were marked as Waqf properties.

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