At a time when the encroachment of government land is becoming a major issue even in villages, the State Cabinet on Thursday decided to keep rural areas out of the stringent clauses related to dealing with encroachment of government land.
Briefing mediapersons after the Cabinet meeting, Law Minister J.C. Madhuswamy said the Cabinet had decided to insulate villages from some of the stringent provisions of the Karnataka Land Grabbing Prohibition Act, 2011, such as conducting trials in a special court.
He argued that it was not right to treat farmers as land-grabbers if they have encroached upon government land during their agricultural operations without proper knowledge that it is a government land.
Under Revenue Act
Henceforth, the incidents of land-grabbing in villages would have to be dealt with under the provisions of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964, he noted.
However, stringent provisions, including conducting a trial against land-grabbers in a special court, would continue to apply for urban areas, he added.
Reason for concern
The decision on insulting villages from stringent provisions has caused concern among activists and officials as there it can be misused by powerful lobbies.
“Especially after removing restrictions related to the purchase of farmland, a large number of people from cities, including big lobbies, have bought huge parcels of farmlands. After this, the complaints of land-grabbing too have increased. Insulating rural areas from stringent provisions of the Act would turn out to be a hurdle in protecting government land in rural areas,” observed a Revenue official.
For martyrs’ families
The Cabinet also gave approval for providing government job to a dependent of martyr defence personnel from Karnataka. The State has 400 defence personnel who died during the service of the country. Of them, the families of 200 soldiers had got alternative support mechanism. The remaining families would now get a government job on compassionate grounds, the Minister said.
The Cabinet also gave its approval for starting 4,244 anganwadis. But they would not be eligible for getting any Central assistance, the Minister noted.
It also approved the proposal for extending Vidyanidhi scholarship, which is presently being given to farmers’ children, to the children of farm labourers also, as announced the Chief Minister earlier.
Reserved forests area
The Cabinet declared the extent of the ecologically sensitive area of the reserved forests of Gundekote, Sharavati, Bheemgad, and Kappatagudda as environmentally sensitive zones. This would now result in confining the size of buffer zones to just 1 km, Mr. Madhuswamy said, while pointing out that there was a provision to stretch this up to 8 km if the size is not declared.
Monsoon session from September 12
The monsoon session of the State legislature will begin on September 12 in Bengaluru, the State Cabinet announced. The session will be held on 10 working days.
