Agricultural land in Karnataka can now be bought more easily by anyone in state. The Karnataka state government has decided to remove restrictions on who will be permitted to buy agricultural land by amending the Karnataka Land Reforms Act, 1961.
Karnataka Land Reforms Act – SectionS Changed
The decision will result in amendments to section 79A and 79B. According to Section 79A, an individual or family who earns an annual income of more than 25 lakh rupees from non-agriculture sources for 5 consecutive years cannot buy agricultural land.
Section 79B prohibits individuals who are not cultivating the land to hold agricultural land. It also deems it unlawful for education, charitable or religious institutions, trusts, societies, companies, co-operative societies other than a co-operative farm and associations from buying agricultural land.
The amendment will be made through an ordinance since the state assembly cannot meet at present. After this is done, there will be no income restrictions on persons, families and institutions permitted to buy agricultural land.
Now any Indian individual, company, trust, educational institution or society can buy farmland in the state. However, there will be a limit on how much agricultural land an individual or group of people can own.
Karnataka Land Reforms Act – Why Is The Change Required?
There are currently 83,171 cases in the Karnataka state revenue courts that involve the land reforms act. These cases have locked up more than two lakhs acres of cultivable land in litigation. The amendment will clear these land titles.
The reformations will also help farmers get better prices for the land. They can then invest this money in improving farming technology.
How Will The Amendment Effect The State?
Amending the Karnataka Land Reforms Act will be beneficial for people wanting to buy land as well as the state economy. The sate has 98.95 lakh hectares of agricultural land of which 22 hectares are not under cultivation.
People will no longer have to travel to neighborhood states to buy land. Many Bengalureans currently own land in Anekal in Tamil Nadu as well as places in Andhra Pradesh. This will also benefit farmers in joint families who have lost their status as ‘farmers’ when one or more members left agriculture to become engineers, etc.
The state’s economy will also benefit. Currently, because of the restrictions, many transactions are misrepresented with buyers making false declarations and hiding the real value of the transactions from revenue authorities.