KALABURAGI: The decision of the Karnataka Cabinet to allot 3 acre and 7 gunta of land belonging to the Government College of Kalaburagi, has attracted the ire of academicians and educational organizations alike.
Retired history professor Shambhuling Vani said that the Government College owned 59 acres of land for the last 4 decades. However, claiming that a small temple of Beerappa has been in existence in the said location of the Government College from nearly a century the Kurubara Sangha community, encroached a part of the land.
The college authorities contacted the archeological department to conduct a survey based on the claim. The survey revealed that the temple is about 25 years old, after which, the Sangha requested the government to give 3 acres and 7 guntas of land to the community. A politician has encroached some portion of the land, and the state has given some portion of the land, to the Kannada and culture department as well as for Regional Centre of VTU. The Government College (which has become an autonomous college now) which previously owned over 59 acres of land, now has about 30 acres of land left.
“It is a bad practice to allot the land belonging to an educational institution to an organization of a particular caste, as other castes will also ask for land from government institutions,” added Shambhuling Vani.
Senior academician Basavaraj Kumnoor who is the retired Principal of Dr Ambedkar College also echoed the same opinion. As the Government College has become autonomous, it needs different departments and land for research activities. The government could have used the excess land to construct play ground for the students. Cabinet decision to allot of the land to a particular caste, will set a bad president and will adversely effect the educational atmosphere, Kumnoor felt.
Founder President of Kalyana Karnataka Horatagala Sanghatane Lakshman Dasti also described the Cabinet decision as bad. “The decision will boomerang and bring bad name to Siddaramaiah government. The government could instead give the land from somewhere else to Kurubara Sangha,” he opined.
The cabinet, on August 22, had agreed to sanction 3 acres and 7 guntas of land belonging to Government College, Kalaburagi, to Karnataka Pradesh Kurubara Sangha.