Bengaluru, Jul 16: Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa led state government’s move to amend the Karnataka Land Reforms Act was “a scam bigger than illegal mining” as farm lands worth Rs 50,000 crore will be lost, according to Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah.
The government on July 13 promulgated an ordinance to amend the Karnataka Land Reforms Act, allowing non-agriculturists to buy agricultural lands while also increasing the cap on the extent of such land a person or a family can hold.
Plus, the amendment will have retrospective effect, meaning over 13,000 cases registered over the years for alleged violations in acquiring farm lands will be vacated or dismissed.
“There are 13,814 cases across all 30 districts. Let’s assume that each case involves four acres of land. That’s 52,000 acres. These are lands worth Rs 45,000-50,000 crore,” Siddaramaiah told a news conference. “This is a scam bigger than illegal mining. While the mining scam had specific players, here the entire government has fallen for the corporate bodies and real estate lobby.”
The illegal mining scam unearthed when the BJP was in power was pegged at Rs 35,000 crore, which became a poll plank for the Congress to come to power in 2013.
Calling it a “black” legislation, Siddaramaiah said the amendments to the land reforms law will result in large portions of farm lands becoming real estate. “This will destroy the farming community. They’ll now have to stand at the doors of corporate bodies. Farmers will sell their land and real estate will come. What’ll happen to food production?” he said.
The ordinance amends Section 63 and 80 of the Act, while omitting Sections 79A, B and C. “These sections were inserted in 1974 under the D Devaraj Urs government. It was a revolutionary, progressive step to protect farmers and ensure social justice,” Siddaramaiah said.
The Congress leader claimed that there was a “biggest conspiracy” behind this. “All this is being driven by the Modi government. They want to privatize more and more so that reservations will go. They want to bring back the zamindari system,” he said, citing the examples of some other recent amendments to other laws.
The timing of the ordinance is suspect, he said. “If the Yediyurappa government really wanted to help farmers and had good intentions, they could’ve brought this before the Assembly or placed it for public discussion. Instead, they’ve made use of the lockdown period to promulgate the ordinance,” he said.
The Congress will fight the ordinance till it gets withdrawn, Siddaramaiah said. “We will talk to other parties, farmers organisations and Dalit groups to plan protests against the BJP’s hidden agenda and anti-farmer policies,” he added.
Comments
Totally comdemenable situatation, at Kottara chawki Criminal Killer from {Kadapu} kerala Uppala and Kunjuttur, all very young boys ,here in natakel Sangi Criminal Jihadi came from Sullia, you people understand all these safroon criminal leaders understand their utterely defetables forth comming election, Yeddianna and shobakka behind all these, no worries we will produce more and mor, Criminilising the holy land of Hindustan they have t have to pay for ever.
Jai Hoo Siddanna
Jai hoo Raianna.
Dear Bro...
Being a Muslim, lets not drag the Issue much. Yes we all agree it is a criminal act of couple of men who want to disturb the peace in society. We as muslims, try our best to teach them islamic way of handling it. Do u know the Hadees of where a Yahudi is given shelter in the mosque by Rasool ( S.A. ) and the next day morning, he urinated in Masjid and went. But our Rasool S.A. asked sahaba to clean the floor by pouring water on them and asked not to harm the yahudi who urinated there. Lets be the followers of this Great Rasool and lets not make fitna in the society just becoz few are doing some crime.
The place called SULIA is the second HQ of criminal RSS. Dept must trap thier all telecom round the clock and smash this evil from the base. Due to last weeks criminal goonda giri TWO innocents lost their life and whole Mangloreans still with that pain. Beside these desh drohi still stick with their anti communal activity. Now they will create more and more by sponsored goonda giri. SInce the State Govt and our Police Dept are with thier strict action these criminals never succeed much. Public must catch and puch from top to bottom first and hand over to police.
The main culprits behind this are our elected TWO criminal back ground politicians.
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