Kalaburagi (Karnataka) [India], November 21 (ANI): BJP workers staged protests in Kalaburagi and Haveri districts of Karnataka on Thursday against the alleged encroachments of farmers’ lands by the state Waqf Board.
Besides, BJP workers, farmers and seers participated in the Kalaburagi protest.
Chalavadi Narayanswamy, Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Council accused the Waqf Board of “snatching” farmers’ lands.
“You can see the situation, farmers’ lands’ are being snatched. Today this protest is being held in Kalaburagi. We are protesting against Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan and the Congress government,” Narayanswamy told ANI.
In the Haveri protest, the BJP workers were seen raising slogans against the Congress government in the state.
Visuals show police forcibly loading protesters into a vehicle while clearing the protest site.
Following a significant rise in land claims by the Waqf Board, affecting farmers’ ancestral lands, temples, government buildings, and even centrally protected monuments under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in several parts of Karnataka has given rise to a political row in the state.
This situation has caused severe distress among local farmers and landowners, who are witnessing their generational land rights challenged without proper notification or due process.
More than 15,000 acres in Vijayapura District alone have been claimed, including ancestral farmland vital for local farmers’ livelihoods. Over 1,500 acres of farmland across 89 survey numbers in Honavada village in Tikota Taluk alone have been unilaterally claimed as Waqf property, according to a press statement.
Many farmers in Babaleshwar Taluk have also received notices stating that their lands are now classified as Waqf property under the Waqf Act. Claims extend to temples and mutt lands, such as the Someshwara Temple (Chalukyan era) and Virakta Mutt (dating to the 12th century), added the statement.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka Government’s Principal Secretary, the Revenue Department, has written to all Regional Commissioners and District Commissioners related to the Waqf issue.
The letter warns of disciplinary action against officials who alter land mutation records and issue eviction notices to farmers under the Waqf Act.
The order issued on November 9 states to withdraw all notices served to farmers and to immediately take back the land mutation orders served by any authority and also to stop mutation work. (ANI)
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