Bengaluru: The State Government has decided to regularise the houses built on Government and private lands in hamlets including Gollarahatti, Lambani Thanda, Kurubarahatti, Nayakarahatti and residential lines inside plantations. A Govt. order has been issued in this regard and rules have been framed in such a way that they provide vesting of land ownership to those occupying such lands.

The Government order provides own roof to lakhs of people who have been so far deprived of it and it regularises all those houses built till Oct.28, 2017.

Announcing this at a press conference in Bengaluru yesterday, Law Minister T.B. Jayachandra said that President Ram Nath Kovind has cleared the Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2016 that seeks to regularise property ownership for agricultural labourers in hamlets. The Bill provides for giving farm labourers rights over houses build on the land not belonging to them prior to January 1, 1979.

“We wanted to ensure that there are no legal hurdles and it was referred to the President through the Governor.” Among others, Bills on Reservation in Promotions, Anti-Superstition Bill and Private Hospitals Regulation will be placed at the Winter Session at Belagavi next month, he said.

The Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was passed unanimously in both the Houses of the State Legislature. It was then referred to the President for his assent.

As per the Bill, the Government has proposed to give a certificate of ownership to those agricultural labourers who are ‘ordinarily’ residing in houses build on a land not belonging to him prior to January 1, 1979. The eligible labourers will have to register as owners of the house within a year from the date of commencement of the proposed Bill. They will be compensated in cash and the State will not incur extra  expenditure for this.

IMPORT OF RIVER SAND

To enable import of river sand from foreign countries, amendment to Minor Minerals Concession Rules has been finalised and will be placed before the Cabinet for approval, said Jayachandra. “The amendments required for the import was finalised today. So far, we did not have any regulations to control import of sand. Once the Cabinet approves the amendments, we can start importing sand,” he said, adding that the State-run Mysore Sales International  Ltd. (MSIL) will be importing the sand.

Currently, the demand for sand in the State is around 35 million tonnes, of which about 40% is being met through river sand. “Import of sand to meet the shortfall has to be regulated since it falls under open general license regime. Modalities for permission and procedures have been incorporated in the amendment,” he said.

The State has also decided to disband the district-level task force mandated to process applications from M-sand producers to set up units. “The task force was set up to process applications quickly. However, we found that about 7,000 to 8,000 applications, most of which are from South Karnataka region, are still pending. The applications will now be processed by the Department of Mines and Geology. Currently, there are around 60 M-sand manufacturing units in the State,” Jayachandra said.