Waqf row: JPC Chairman receives over 500 petitions from farmers in K'taka

Bengaluru: Chairperson of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, Jagdambika Pal, along with JPC member and Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya have received over 500 petitions from farmers in Karnataka who submitted that their agricultural land is being claimed by the Waqf Board as its property.

Farmers from Vijayapura, Bidar, Kalaburgi, Hubli, Bagalkot and Belagavi districts of Karnataka have written to Pal and Surya regarding the matter. The JPC Chairperson on Thursday was on a visit to Hubli, Vijayapura and Belagavi, upon a request by BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, to understand the concerns of farmers.

In Vijayapura district, there has been a significant rise in land claims by the Waqf Board, affecting farmers' ancestral lands, temples, government buildings, and even centrally protected monuments under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), a statement mentioned.

The situation has caused severe distress among farmers and landowners, who are witnessing their generational land rights being challenged without proper notification or due process, Tejasvi Surya said.

More than 15,000 acres in Vijayapura district have been claimed, including ancestral farmland vital for local farmer's livelihoods, the statement said.

"Over 1,500 acres of farm land across 89 survey numbers in Honavada village in Tikota Taluk alone have been unilaterally claimed as Waqf property.

Many farmers in Babaleshwar Taluk have also received notices stating that their lands are now classified as Waqf property under the Waqf Act.

"Claims extend to temples and mutt land, such as the Someshwara Temple of the Chalukyan era and Virakta Mutt dating to the 12th century," according to the statement.

MP Tejasvi Surya had requested last week for the JPC chairman to visit Vijayapura and understand the plight of the farmers under the Congress government in Karnataka.

Addressing the media regarding the visit, Surya said: “I am thankful to JPC Chairman Jagdambika Pal for taking time to meet with farmers of Vijayapura, Hubballi, Belagavi and other regions of North Karnataka to understand the issue of their agricultural lands being wrongfully claimed by the Waqf Board."

“The exponential rise in the number of instances in Karnataka where agricultural lands are being claimed by the State Waqf Board is happening during a period in which the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, is meeting to deliberate on the reforms for the Waqf Act, 1995," he stated.

"Karnataka Minority Affairs and Waqf Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan has been conducting 'Waqf Adalats' in several parts of the state. Such Waqf Adalats do not have any valid status under the Constitution or any of the Revenue Department Rules," the BJP leader said.

“Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) raised the voice of such farmers and demanded that the changes in the revenue records, including unilateral changes in the RTC, mutation and Pahani made without even serving notices to the property owners concerned, be reversed and the unconstitutional Waqf Adalats be stopped immediately," Tejasvi Surya stated.

"However, CM Siddaramaiah made mere token announcements to cancel any recent changes made in the revenue records. Waqf Adalats have not been stopped, and the notices have not been withdrawn to all farmers concerned yet. What's more, 43 ASI-protected sites in Vijayapura, including the Gol Gumbaz and Ibrahim Roza, have been claimed by the Waqf Board since 2005," he further said.

The BJP MP said that encroachments and unauthorised constructions have taken place on these sites, impacting their heritage value. "Requests by the ASI to correct records have been ignored, allegedly under Waqf Board’s influence," he said.