Opposing the proposed Act for facilitating farmers to take government farmland on a contract basis for farming, the All India Kisan Khet Majdoor Sangathan (AIKKMS) has planned a centralised agitation to be held at Freedom Park in Bengaluru on October 18.
In a media note released on Saturday, Mahesh S.B., district secretary of the organisation, called upon the landless farmers who had been cultivating government land for decades to participate in the agitation to demand the withdrawal of the proposal and seek regularisation of their cultivation to the actual cultivators.
“The law proposed by Revenue Minister R. Ashok would allow the government to hand over around 20 lakh cultivable government lands to private organisations instead of regularising ‘bagair hukum’ land to their genuine cultivators. If the proposed Act comes into force, the landless farmers who have been cultivating government land for the last several decades would never get the ownership rights,” Mr. Mahesh said.
Pointing to the amendments made to the Land Revenue Act, 1964, in 1991 and 2009 to regularise the 3.34 lakh acres and 5.52 lakh acres of bagair hukum land, respectively, Mr. Mahesh demanded that the government take similar initiatives to regularise the remaining bagair hukum land and disburse the ownership rights to their genuine cultivators.
