The Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Friday adopted The Karnataka Land Revenue (Amendment) Bill-2015 which seeks to increase the upper ceiling for regularisation of unauthorised constructions on government lands in the rural areas from the present 2,400 square feet to 4,000 square feet.
Piloting the Bill, Revenue Minister V. Sreenivas Prasad said the ceiling on regularisation was being increased in the wake of demand from various members. As the process of regularisation has already been set into motion by setting December-end as deadline for receiving applications, the government would now extend the deadline, he noted. He also agreed to the suggestion by Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa to reduce the regularisation fee.
A large number of members cutting across party affiliations welcomed the increase in the upper ceiling of land area proposed for regularisation, while some of them made a plea to the government to consider further increasing the extent of upper ceiling. BJP member Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri argued that the earlier limit of 2,400 square feet was not enough for the rural households as they needed to accommodate cattle besides making space for farm implements.
However, ruling Congress member Ramesh Kumar expressed concern over increasing the ceiling on land area. Pointing out that the regularisation scheme was meant for the landless poor, he wondered if the poor people would build such huge structures. He even suggested that the House should consider prescribing different ceilings for the Malnad and plain regions of the state as the requirements of these two regions were different. But such a suggestion was not considered as a overwhelming number of members felt that rural households needed a minimum of 4,000 square feet of land.
The Bill also seeks to limit the area to be utilised for construction of farm house/building to 10 per cent of the total land holding.
It also seeks to provide deemed permission for conversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural purpose of setting up solar power plants in tune with the Karnataka Solar Policy-2014-15.
