"Attempts being made to create confusion": Karnataka minister on Waqf row
Oct 28, 2024
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], October 28 : Karnataka Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda on Monday said that the farmers' land will not be taken away. He said that there are attempts being made to create confusion over the issue despite another minister MB Patil clarifying the same.
Gowda said that there were notices regarding 14,201 acres and there are only a few acres that remain for spaces like Dargah. Nearly 1,319 acres are not in anyone's name and the government was discussing the same, he added.
"The land that is with farmers will not be taken. It is not even the intention of the government. By miss few notices might have gone. This is a procedural lapse by tahsildar (revenue officer). It will all be corrected. Notice is only being given Honvada village where Waqf Board has 11 acres of land. Don't know why BJP is dragging this (issue)," Gowda said.
This politics is happening because of the dispute between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Basangouda Patil Yatnal and BY Vijayendra, he said.
This comes after BJP MP Surya held a presser and accused Congress government in Karnataka of sending notices to farmers in Vijayapura district, declaring their lands as Waqf property. He claimed that 1,500-acre land was taken in a single village of Honvada.
Surya alleged that Karnataka Waqf Minister Khan visited and directed the deputy commissioner and revenue officials to register lands in favour of the EWaqf Board within 15 days, to circumvate the reforms being brought in by Modi government through the Waqf Amendment Bill, 2024
Earlier, Karnataka Waqf minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan accused BJP of spreading lies that the state government will take away the lands of the farmers. He asserted that the state government was not sending notices to farmers.
"BJP is making false allegations that we are sending notices to farmers, it is not true. Neither we haven't taken even one acre of land from farmers nor we have sent any notice to farmers. Waqf board has 1 lakh 12 thousand acres of land, in which Waqf controls only 23,700 acres. Rest of the land has been encroached. The land which has gone is gone, but we should protect what is left with the Waqf board," the minister said.
Khan informed that they had invited BJP Basangouda Patil Yatnal for the cabinet meeting, but he didn't come. Furthermore, he took a dig at BJP MP Tejasvi Surya saying that he is intelligent but the press conference held by him didn't have any information.
