"BJP making false allegations": Karnataka Minister on Waqf row
Oct 28, 2024
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], October 28 : Amid the ongoing uproar over the Waqf issue, Karnataka's Minority Welfare Minister B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan on Monday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of spreading misinformation that the state government intends to take away farmers' lands.
He asserted that no notices were being sent to farmers by the state government.
"The BJP is falsely alleging that we are sending notices to farmers. This is untrue. We have neither taken even a single acre of land from farmers nor sent any notice to them. The Waqf Board has 1,12,000 acres of land, of which it controls only 23,700 acres; the remainder has been encroached upon. While we cannot reclaim what has been lost, it is essential to protect what remains under the Waqf Board's control," the minister said.
Khan stated that BJP leader Basangouda Patil Yatnal was invited to the cabinet meeting, but he did not attend. Additionally, he took a dig at BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, noting that while Surya is intelligent, his press conference lacked substantive information.
"Tejasvi Surya should have held a press conference with valid information. I had thought he was intelligent, but he conducted it without any real data. We, too, are the children of farmers and have no intention of taking farmers' land. Of the 36,000 acres, 748 acres have been encroached upon. Why do Surya and BJP leaders not address this?" Khan remarked.
He further alleged that the BJP's actions were part of a premeditated plan to introduce amendments at the central level, driven by the upcoming Maharashtra and Jharkhand elections to create a particular narrative for electoral purposes.
Earlier, BJP MP Surya held a press conference accusing the Congress government in Karnataka of sending notices to farmers in Vijayapura district, declaring their lands as Waqf property. He claimed that 1,500 acres had been acquired in a single village, Honvada.
Surya alleged that Minister Khan visited the area and directed the deputy commissioner and revenue officials to register lands in favour of the e-Waqf Board within 15 days, aiming to bypass the Modi government's reforms through the Waqf Amendment Bill, 2024.
