Karnataka waqf row: Congress cites BJP govt panel’s recommendation to mark land as waqf property in revenue records

The Congress highlighted the report after BJP leaders considered close to MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal launched a month-long “abolish waqf” campaign. Incidentally, Bangarappa is also part of the Yatnal camp.

Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge asked why the previous BJP government had notified waqf land and issued notices to farmers. “Why did the Kumar Bangarappa committee recommend entering ‘waqf property’ in land documents under farmer’s names? Why were they instructed to review all waqf properties at the taluk level and make entries ‘waqf property’ in the Bhoomi software?” he asked.

Accusing the BJP of peddling lies, Kharge said the party’s campaign was not aimed at helping farmers. “It is a ‘Vijayendra Hatao’ campaign,” he said, hinting at Yatnal’s rivalry with BJP state president B Y Vijayendra, who is the son of former chief minister B S Yediyurappa.

Home Minister G Parameshwara said that notices were served for around 2,900 acres of land during BJP rule. “The campaign by Yatnal is to embarrass the BJP. Since he now knows that more notices were served during the terms of Yediyurappa and Bommai, his campaign is meant to shame them,” he said.

Yatnal launched the campaign despite an announcement by the BJP that it would form three teams to tour the state and collect grievances regarding notices served by the waqf board.

Speaking at the launch of the campaign in Bidar, Yatnal alleged that “Muslim IAS officers” were responsible for turning government land into waqf land. “Today, they are preparing to turn entire Bidar into waqf property. That means there is an attempt to make a Pakistan inside India,” he said.

The committee had observed that if the land belonging to the waqf board was not registered as such in the revenue department’s property register, there were chances for it to be illegally alienated or encroached on.

The committee thus recommended that all properties of the board at the taluk level be reviewed and marked as waqf property in the revenue department’s Bhoomi software to “conserve waqf properties”.

Bhoomi is a software tool used to digitise land records and make changes to the land registry. By making these entries in the software, the department could lock the survey numbers to prevent any future transactions on the land, the report said.

Noting that 4,663 acres 26 guntas of waqf land was encroached on in the state, the Bangarappa-led committee recommended district administrations recover all encroached land and hand it over to the waqf board. It had recommended “strict action” to prevent any trade or encroachment and also action under the Land Encroachment Act against individuals running commercial establishments illegally on waqf land.

The BJP governments under Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai initiated the process of issuing notices to clear encroachments on waqf land on the basis of these recommendations. Subsequently, 1,735 notices were served during the BJP government and 2,865 acres of land was notified as waqf land.