Litterateur and Sarvodaya Karnataka Party president Devanur Mahadev, one of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s cultural mentors, urged the Congress government to withdraw the Land Bank system introduced by the previous government in order to safeguard the land for food production.
At a programme to felicitate MLA K S Puttannaiah organised by the district Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha here on Sunday, he said that the government should retain the lease system instead of selling land to industries.
Since Independence, only 60,000 acres were acquired for industries. However, the BJP government had introduced a system of selling land to corporate houses instead of leasing it, he added.
Unfortunately, in the last five years, the previous government had acquired more than one lakh acres, pushing the farmers into hardships. The previous government had done this at the behest of capitalists and the land mafia, he alleged. He said that the KIADB had made changes to the KIADB Act to sell land which was being given on lease. No other state has this kind of system.
Usually, if the industries, who leased the land, failed to fulfil the objective for which the land was obtained, the state government would retrieve the land, he said adding: “But in Karnataka, it is different. At least, Siddaramaiah should withdraw this system of acquiring land in the name of Land Bank and reinstate the lease system. Otherwise, the farmers will fight for the protection of land,” he added. Sangha senior leader Umapathiyappa presided over the programme.