Protest by Dalit families in constituency of CM B.S. Yediyurappa
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Around 20 Dalit families of Mayathamma Muchudi village in Shikaripura Assembly constituency, represented by Chief Minister B.S.Yediyurappa, staged a protest on Wednesday in opposition to the taluk administration for eradicating encroachments on authorities grazing land (gomala).
The protesters, who have been carrying some bottles, threatened to commit suicide en masse in the event that they weren’t allowed to domesticate the land. The police took away the bottles forcibly.
Shikaripur Tahsildar M.P. Kaviraj pacified the protesters by assuring that he would convey their pleas to the Karnataka authorities.
In the village of over 200 households, the Dalit families have been preventing for grant of land. So far, they’d been working in the land of different individuals.
Veeresh K.P., a Dalit, who led Wednesday’s protest, mentioned that the Dalit families had been cultivating a portion of land in survey quantity 128 of the village for a number of years. Their functions for grant of land underneath the Land Reforms Act have been rejected whereas the functions of higher caste individuals in the village have been honoured, he alleged.
“Why were only our applications rejected? None of us has a piece of land in our name. We spent thousands of rupees on seed and fertilisers, and completed sowing last week. The officers drove a tractor on our land, causing a huge loss to us,” Veeresh informed The Puucho.
The higher caste individuals – Lingayats – had been opposing grant of land to Dalits, he alleged. “They want us to work for them for low wages. Besides that, they do not allow the panchayat to take up fresh works under the MGNREGS only to deny us work and wages. We carried poison bottles as we have lost hope of a decent livelihood,” he mentioned.
In the Nineties, survey quantity 128 consisted 150 acres of land. Of that, round 70 acres have been allotted to bagair hukum cultivators 15 years in the past.
Tahsildar Kaviraj M.P. informed The Puucho that some functions submitted at the moment by Dalits have been rejected as they’d not cultivated the land. “Since then, the remaining 80 acres had been protected in the interest of cattle. We cannot allow encroachment of the land,” he mentioned.
The officer mentioned, final yr, Veeresh and others had cultivated maize on the gomala land. The officer had warned him of motion if he cultivated the land once more.
“We did not want to destroy the crop then. As he cultivated the land again this year, we had to take back the land. Before that, we had put up a signboard at the site cautioning people against cultivating the government-owned land,” the officer mentioned.
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