President’s nod to Land Reforms Amendment

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Assembly had passed an Amendment Bill aimed at facilitating the grant of certificate of ownership to agricultural labourers in respect of the dwelling houses built on the land not belonging to them prior to 1979, in March this year. According to the historic Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Bill 2016, that was passed, those residing in an unrecorded habitation would become its owners. President Ram Nath Kovind has cleared this Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Bill 2016, recently, where the ownership of the property of agricultural labourers living in hamlets will be regularised. Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T.B. Jayachandra, addressing a press conference, here on Oct. 25, said, “We wanted to ensure that there are no legal hurdles and it was referred to the President through the Governor.” He said that the Bill, passed by the State Legislature in March, was important as it provided vesting of land ownership to those occupying government and private lands in hamlets. About 58,000 hamlets like tandas, hatti, haadi, wadi, palya, camps, colonies, doddis and bastis, which were previously unrecorded revenue lands, have been identified to extend legal status as recorded revenue villages and extend Right of Occupancy records to agricultural labourers, artisans, nomads, tribals and settlers. These people who have been residing in a dwelling house on a land not belonging to them prior to January 1, 1979 would be registered as owners.