BENGALURU: Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said on Monday that over 9.85 lakh applicants have sought regularisation of cultivation on 54 lakh acres of government land under the bagair hukum scheme.
“The state government cannot regularise Bagair hukum cultivation on such large tracts of land. A large number of people are trying to misuse this scheme for regularisation of government land being cultivated by them illegally,” he said in the Legislative Assembly.
“The scheme is meant for the landless poor. We have formed 138 Bagair hukum regularisation committees to dispose of applications. The committees in some taluks are yet to be formed. I have asked district ministers to form committees at taluk levels soon,” he said.
Byre Gowda said the verification process is on and many applications have been found to be bogus. “An individual has applied for regularisation of land being cultivated at 25 places. In some cases, false age certificates have been submitted. Applications of ineligible people will be rejected,” he added.
When some MLAs stated that many eligible applications have been rejected, he said they will be re-examined. “I have instructed revenue officials not to approve the applications of ineligible people. The applications rejected due to misinterpretation of rules will be reconsidered,” he said.