Date:13/11/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/13/stories/2006111308250500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Plan to amend Land Reforms Act

Ravi Sharma

It is aimed at regularising the 7,000 `bhoo-vidya dana' land tenants

Association wants provision to file tenancy applications

Chief Minister has ordered review of the proposal

Bangalore: The State Government is seeking to amend the Land Reforms Act so that 7,000 tenants occupying 14,000 acres of "bhoo-vidya dana" land are regularised.

These tenants who have cultivated `bhoo-vidya dana" land for over 50 years say that abolition of the tenancy system by the Devaraj Urs Ministry in the early 1970s has rendered continuation of this form of tenancy untenable, and that it goes against the letter and spirit of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act, under which the tiller is the owner of the land.

The fact that the "khata" certificate/ownership of the land is still in the name of the Governor goes against the tenets of the Constitution, they allege. The tenants, organised under the State Bhoo-Vidya Dhana Government School Land Tenants Action Committee want the Land Reforms Act amended so that they can file tenancy applications. According to Kallurmegharaja, president of the Committee, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has reacted "positively and boldly" to the association's demand. On November 8, the Chief Minister had asked the Principal Secretary, Revenue, to review the proposal submitted by the association and put it up before the Cabinet so that the Act could be amended, he said.

Bhoodan Movement

The genesis of this category of land goes back to 1952-53 when, in the aftermath of Vinoba Bhave's Bhoodan Movement, the then Chief Minister Kengal Hanumanthaiah had successfully encouraged philanthropists to donate land to schools in order that playgrounds, buildings, and even gardens where horticultural activities for the benefit of the schools could be started.

Over 20,000 acres of land was donated, out of which only 6,000 acres were actually used by the schools.

The remaining around 14,000 acres of land which was far from the schools and uncultivable or already in possession of farmer tenants were not used by the schools. These lands either continued to be in the possession of the farmers, or were given to tenants with the schools receiving rent for it. While the RTC (Rights, Tenancy and Crops) certificate continues to be in the name of the tenants, the ownership is still in the name of the Governor.

Despite socialist agrarian movements such as Kagodu Satyagraha, the "bhoo-vidya dana" land was not included under Section 107 of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act.