The Congress authorities in Karnataka is ready for a majority within the state legislative council to roll again an modification made in 2020 to the Karnataka Land Reforms Act, 1961, by the earlier BJP authorities. This modification had allowed solely agriculturists to purchase agricultural land within the state, in keeping with state Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
The federal government plans to reverse modifications made to the land buy legal guidelines by the BJP, which eliminated three key sections of the act, Siddaramaiah mentioned this week at an occasion marking the delivery anniversary of former CM Devaraj Urs, who was instrumental in earlier land reforms.
The Karnataka Land Reforms (Modification) Act, 2020, handed by the BJP authorities, repealed three sections of the legislation that imposed restrictions on the acquisition of agricultural land by non-agriculturists. The amended act eliminated part 79A, which allowed solely these incomes lower than Rs 25 lakh every year to purchase agricultural land, part 79B, which stipulated that solely individuals incomes a residing via agriculture may purchase agricultural land, and part 79C, which allowed income departments to analyze violations of sections 79A and B throughout land purchases.
“The coverage of land reforms carried out by Devaraj Urs allowed agricultural communities to personal land via sections 79A and B. We’ll restore the land legal guidelines when we’ve a majority within the legislative council,” Siddaramaiah mentioned on August 20, throughout Devaraj Urs’ delivery anniversary celebrations.
One of many guarantees made by the Congress celebration in its manifesto for the 2023 Karnataka polls was to “repeal anti-farmer legal guidelines enacted by the BJP authorities and to withdraw all politically motivated circumstances towards farmers.”
The Congress celebration has averted altering the legal guidelines introduced by the BJP—together with the land reform legal guidelines—within the first yr of its tenure as a result of an absence of majority within the higher home of the state legislature and the controversial nature of many legal guidelines.
The Congress has inched nearer to a majority within the legislative council in current months, following its important victory of 136 seats within the 2023 state meeting polls, and is predicted to regularly achieve an higher hand over the opposition. The Congress at present holds 35 seats within the 75-member higher home, in comparison with 37 for the mixed opposition of the BJP (29) and the JDS (8), along with an Impartial who has allied with the Congress, a vacant seat, and the chairman.
The numbers are anticipated to shift in favor of the Congress by 2025, when extra vacancies happen within the legislative council.
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, who’s at present going through allegations of corruption within the grant of housing websites to his spouse in trade for 3.16 acres of land taken over by native authorities in Mysuru, has renewed the Congress’ promise to amend agricultural land possession legal guidelines on the event of Devaraj Urs’ delivery anniversary—a frontrunner Siddaramaiah is eager to emulate.
Siddaramaiah has beforehand argued that the 2020 legislation would result in a lack of cultivable agricultural land wanted to fulfill meals manufacturing calls for. He has additionally claimed that the brand new legislation is meant to learn the true property mafia in Bengaluru.
Throughout the debate on the invoice within the state legislature in 2020, Siddaramaiah argued that “the retrospective nature of the invoice exhibits the federal government is hand in glove with company our bodies and housing societies.” He added, “The legislation shall be a demise warrant for farmers, farm staff, and Dalits.”
The Karnataka Land Reforms Act of 1961 was amended in 2020 by the BJP authorities beneath B S Yediyurappa amid rising strain from industries to align the legal guidelines with these in neighboring states to facilitate development away from the agriculture sector. The modifications within the land legal guidelines had been promised by Yediyurappa throughout a go to to the World Financial Discussion board at Davos in early 2020 as an incentive to draw buyers.
The BJP has argued that the restrictions on the sale and buy of agricultural land in Karnataka don’t exist in states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu, making these states extra enticing to buyers.
Curiously, a Congress authorities in Karnataka headed by Siddaramaiah had eased guidelines for land acquisition by non-agriculturists in 2015. The Karnataka Land Reforms (Modification) Invoice, 2015, amended part 79A and elevated the annual revenue restrict for land acquisition by non-agriculturists from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 25 lakh. The opposition BJP and JDS argued on the time that the 2015 modification would solely assist actual property companies purchase extra land round cities within the state.
Janata Dal Secular celebration chief and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy had supported the 2020 amendments, noting that he himself had confronted allegations of violating sections 79A and B of the legislation over possession of fifty acres of agricultural property exterior Bengaluru.
Since coming to energy in 2023, the Congress authorities has confronted a number of defeats within the legislative council whereas making an attempt to go new laws. The BJP and JDS, which had 34 members within the council in February this yr in comparison with 30 for the Congress, defeated the Karnataka Hindu Non secular Establishments and Charitable Endowments (Modification) Invoice, 2024, introduced by the Congress authorities to extend the widespread pool of funds for managing temples within the state.
The opposition BJP and JDS coalition additionally blocked the Karnataka Souharda Cooperative (Modification) Invoice, 2024, which goals at reforms within the cooperative sector, within the legislative council. Among the Congress payments, just like the Hindu Non secular Establishments and Charitable Endowments invoice, which had been defeated within the council, had been later handed via the legislative meeting a second time however have now been rejected by the Karnataka Governor.
