Cong opposes amendment to Land Revenue Act in K'taka Council

Bangalore, June 27 (UNI) The opposition Congress in the Karnataka Legislative Council today strongly opposed the Karnataka Land Revenue (Second) Amendment Bill 2005, seeking additional provision for disposing land or other property belonging to the state government.

When the Bill, which had already been approved by the Assembly, was tabled in the House, Leader of the Opposition H K Patil raised objection to it, saying that it would only enable rich and affluent sections to buy property. He demanded that the state government withdraw it immediately.

He also demanded the Chair to refer the proposed Amendment Bill to the House Select Committee to discuss it threadbare.

Congress member V S Sudarshan criticised the state government for bringing in such an amendment even before the Joint House Committee formed by it to probe into the alleged land grabbing in and around the city and said the move smacked of suspicion. He described the proposed amendment as anti-poor and appealed to the government to withdraw it.

Earlier moving the Bill, Revenue Minister Jagadish Shettar said the proposed amendment was to clarify further the power of state government to dispose of state property retrived from the land grabbers, through auction also.

He said under Section 69 of the Land Revenue Bill, the state enjoyed the power to dispose any state property and the present amendment was being brought in to clarify it further and remove any legal confusions. The Bill also sought to reduce the confirmation period of any disposal property from 90 days to 30 days, he added.

UNI MV RG PK KN2225