BAGALKOT, HASSAN, CHAMARAJANAGAR: In fresh revelation amid the ongoing waqf land controversy, land on which a government office stands and that earmarked for a government school apart from agricultural land belonging to some farmers have been shown as waqf properties.
In Badami town of Bagalkot district, land on which the office of the Malaprabha Left Bank Engineering Division and where the mini Vidhana Soudha is coming up on Survey No. 192 has been shown as claimed by the state waqf board.
Meanwhile, a message is doing the rounds on social media asking farmers and owners of commercial properties to check their records if it is registered to the waqf board.
At Ghattadahalli in Halebid hobli of Belur taluk in Hassan district, 38 guntas of land on Survey No. 435, which was donated for a government school, has been shown as waqf property. The land was donated many years ago and till recently, revenue records showed that it was donated for a school. This is reportedly the first such case that has come to light in Hassan district.
Belur MLA H K Suresh has expressed his anger over the development and led a protest in the in Belur town on Wednesday. The protesters staged a sit-in at the taluk office and raised slogans against the Congress government in the state, the CM and Waqf minister Zameer Ahmed Khan. They also demanded that the land remain earmarked for a school and warned of intensifying their protest.
At VC Hosur village in Chamarajanagar district, three farmers are in fear of losing their agricultural land. It has now come to light that in July 2022, the district waqf advisory committee had written to the tahsildar to transfer 2 acres and 9 guntas of land to the Jamia Masjid in Haradanahalli. Three months ago, the RRT division forwarded the letter to the revenue inspector for action.
The land belongs to H G Shantappa, H V Girimallu and H V Nagaraju. They said that their father had bought the land from a Muslim 45 years ago and added that they got to know about the district waqf advisory committee’s recommendation only now. “Looking at the happenings in the state, we fear losing our inherited land”, they said.