Gowda warns K’taka govt against flouting land laws

JD(S) chief and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda on Thursday warned the BJP-ruled government in Karnataka against allotment of agricultural land for industrial and other purposes.

JD(S) chief and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda on Thursday warned the BJP-ruled government in Karnataka against allotment of agricultural land for industrial and other purposes,ignoring the existing laws and rules on the matter.

Gowda told reporters,during his tenure in 1995,certain amendments to the land reform act had been executed for allotment of such agricultural land for industrial and other purposes,but with conditions attached.

The current BJP government had been allotting such land,flouting the conditions and existing rules,he said,adding that he was not anti-development as some tried to project him to be.

However,he would not allow such blatant violation of law and would call for an agitation if such practice continued. He had written to Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on the issue,the former prime minister said.

Reacting to the Somasekhara Commission report,which probed attacks on churches in the state in 2008,he said there had been direct or indirect support of some authorized officials with the perpetrators of the crime. “The report has not come as a surprise at all,” Gowda said.

The cases booked against these officials were not very strong and hence many of them had been successful in obtaining bail. But,in case of farmers who chose to agitate for their rights,the government had chosen to book very strong cases,leading to some of them still languishing behind bars,Gowda alleged.

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