Wooing farmers ahead of the coming elections to gram panchayats, BJP State president Nalin Kumar Kateel said on Saturday that the State government has decided to grant privilege rights to farmers over kumki land in the State.
Addressing the gram swarajya convention of the party at B.C. Road, the DK MP said elected representatives of the party are committed to protecting the interests of farmers. MLAs and MLCs of the coastal belt had met in Bengaluru to discuss the aspects of granting kumki rights to farmers before the government’s decision.
The kumki, kana and bane lands are the ones adjacent to the farmland owned by farmers who had the right to use fodder, wood, and forest produce grown or available there. The right had been conferred in the pre-Independence era. Later, the complete rights of farmers over that land was withdrawn.
In August 2019 the BJP MLAs from the coastal belt had appealed to Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa to take necessary steps to grant farmers their ‘privilege rights’ over kumki, kana and bane lands in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kodagu districts. The MLAs had said that the State government led by Jagadish Shettar in 2013 had issued a draft to amend Land Revenue Rules to grant ‘privilege rights’ to farmers. Later, the government had invited objections to the same. Since then, the matter has been pending before the government.
Speaking at the convention on B.C. Road Mr. Kateel said that the government has also taken a decision to grant cashew lease rights to farmers in the coastal belt. He said the government would announce a separate sand extraction policy applicable to the coastal belt. With this, sand will be made available to people in the jurisdiction of all GPs in the belt.
Mr. Kateel said that the government has taken a decision to grant 25 houses to poor in the jurisdiction of each gram panchayat.
