Minister for Revenue V. Srinivas Prasad on Thursday informed the Legislative Council that effective steps would be taken to prevent non-agriculturists from buying plantation lands in violation of the provisions of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act.
He was responding to a calling attention notice by Janata Dal (Secular) Floor Leader M.C. Nanaiah, who said Revenue Department officials, particularly in Kodagu district, have been allowing non-agriculturists to buy plantation land on the grounds that it is not agricultural land.
The Act prohibits purchase of agriculture land by non-agriculturists with an annual income of more than Rs. 2 lakh a year.
‘Officials permit it’However, officials have been allowing transactions of hundreds of acres of land in the district, resulting in a complete change of the topography of the district. Buyers have been converting such land into resorts or farmhouses.
If the trend continues, it would be disastrous, and could affecting the flow of the Cauvery, he said.
New methodsApart from buying conventional plantations, land sharks have adopted another method to buy agriculture land, Mr. Nanaiah said.
They identify vast tracks of uncultivated land close to forests, get coffee and cardamom saplings planted by the original owner and pay land revenue claiming it to be plantation land before buying the same.
‘Categorise it’Mr. Nanaiah wanted the government to categorise plantation land as agricultural land, which cannot be bought by non-agriculturists.
