Curbs on farmland transactions in Karnataka
the sale of more than 5,000 hectares (ha) of land in the command areas of northern Karnataka in a span of just three years has made the state government sit up in alarm. It swung into action on June 6 notifying the Karnataka Irrigation (Amendment) Ordinance. The regulation bans the sale, lease, mortgage or exchange of land in the command areas for 10 years without the prior permission of irrigation officers.
It was found that farmers in Karnataka were selling off land to their counterparts in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh (ap). "This was not distress sale," reveals an official of the state irrigation department, adding: "We spent more than Rs 5,000 crore on the completion of the first phase of the Upper Krishna Project (ukp). Ironically, when water started flowing into the command areas, our farmers started selling land."
Currently, the ukp involves utilisation of 119 thousand million cubic feet of water to irrigate 4.25 lakh ha on the left bank of the river. This will benefit the northern Karnataka districts of Gulbarga, Raichur, Bagalkote and Bijapur. Significantly, one-third of the total command area of 14,000 ha in Shahpur Branch Canal -- a part of ukp -- has already been sold to ap's farmers.
The Karnataka government has invested around Rs 14,455 crore on major and medium irrigation projects since 1951. Hence, it is reluctant to cede the benefits to other states. Though the state government believes that the new ordinance will prevent any further transfer of land, a closer look reveals several inherent loopholes. Firstly, the irrigation officer has not been authorised to decide the veracity of a farmer's claim to sell land. Does this mean that the state will control this process from Bangalore? Also, doesn't the order go against a citizen's right to freely buy or dispose of land?
Perhaps responding to such criticism, the state government is contemplating forming a high-level committee to scrutinise proposals for sale or lease of lands in the command areas. By regulating crop cultivation in the command areas, the Karnataka government hopes to discourage ap farmers from buying land. But despite the cultivation of water-guzzling crops such as sugarcane and paddy being banned in the command areas, the latter is grown on more than 50,000 ha.
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