The Waqf Board is fighting a legal battle to regain possession of 1,500 acres of agricultural land in Karnataka’s Vijayapura district, in which BJP MP Tejasvi Surya sees a plot to usurp fertile land. On Tuesday he wrote a letter to Jagdambika Pal, the Chairman, of the joint parliaments committee JPC on Waqf bill to pay a visit to Vijayapura to examine the situation. Surya said he discussed with farmers who have been practicing agriculture on these lands for almost 100 years and they have documents dating back to the 1920s or early 1930s.
In his letter Surya pointed that many farmers have recently received notices stating they are in possession of Waqf land without any proof. He noted that in some of the cases alterations were done on RTC, pahani, and mutation registers, without following the correct procedures. “The magnitude of these claims is quite large; in the village that the researchers are from, 1,500 acres have been set aside as Waqf land,” pointed out Surya.
Have written to the Chairperson of the JPC on Waqf Amendment Bill Shri Jagdambika Pal Ji, drawing attention to the plight of farmers from Vijayapura District & other areas in the vicinity in Karnataka, who have been wrongfully served notices claiming their land as Waqf property.… pic.twitter.com/PyiE29kmuI
— Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) October 30, 2024
He asked the JPC to call those farmers so that they can testify before the committe on the experiences they have gone through, their views on the proposed changes and challenges facing farmers.
To this Surya urge Pal to organizie a public sitting in the state of Karnataka in order to enable farmers give their complaints.
This comes after the fear was reported from farmers around Vijayapura stating their fields had been tagged as Waqf and ordered to vacate. But Karnataka’s Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also promised the farmers that no evictions will be carried out. This prompted him on Tuesday to counter by saying that(REMESMA); the notices to these farmers would be withdrawn. “No farmer will be removed out of his or her farm,” he said adding that Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, Industries Minister M B Patil and Waqf Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan endorse the decision.
Regarding similar cases in Yadgir and Dharwad districts, Siddaramaiah said that Revenue Minister would look into the matter to see that no farmer is displaced.
