Sale of SC/ST land: Krishna Byre Gowda defends strict checks

Some Congress MLAs went after their own party’s government in the Legislative Assembly on Monday over delays in permitting SC/ST persons to sell their land.

Bangarpet MLA S N Narayanaswamy took on the Revenue Department and said poor SC/ST people are facing difficulties in selling land granted to them.

“The revenue principal secretary acts like Brahma. An application from a poor SC/ST person takes six months to reach the government. A query is raised and sent back. The poor SC/ST person who wants to sell his land for a good value so that he can buy land elsewhere is left stranded,” Narayanaswamy said, adding “there is no benefit for SC/ST applicants under this government”. 

Hubli-Dharwad (East) Congress MLA Abbayya Prasad also backed Narayanaswamy on this issue. 

‘Govt’s approval’

Under the Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prohibition of Transfer of Certain Lands-PTCL) Act, lands granted to SC/STs can be bought or sold only after the government’s approval.

In the last three years, the government received 625 proposals and in this, 408 were approved. The remaining 217 were sent back for clarification. 

Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said the PTCL law is meant to make it difficult for SC/STs to sell their lands. 

‘Not easy to sell land’

“Under the law, it shouldn’t be easy for SC/STs to sell their land to come out of some financial hardship. Once the land is lost, it won’t come back,” Gowda said. 

The minister explained why authorities seek clarification.

“Those who are not owners of the land were given authorisation to sell the land. Then, land without Phodi (delineation of boundaries) were permitted for sale. We also have had lands with false conversion permitted for sale,” he said.

“Some files come to us without the original grant documents. Some come with court cases. Some don’t have a family tree connecting the original and the present grantee. We get files with several such lacunae,” he said. 

Gowda said the government must strike a balance between protecting the interests of Dalits while respecting their freedom to sell their lands.