Vijayapura, Oct 26 (IANS): The farmers staged a protest before the Deputy Commissioner's office in Karnataka's Vijayapura district on Saturday, condemning the district authorities’ move to issue notices to them over claims that their lands belong to the Waqf board.

They also alleged that the authorities have already made changes in the land ownership records including the RTC (Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops) and mentioned that their land belongs to the Waqf Board. The banks are refusing loans to farmers and they are not able to sell their lands, the farmers claimed.

The State Swami Vivekananda Sena Founding President and farmer’s activist Raghav Annigeri said that, on October 7 and 8, Minister for Waqf Zameer Ahmad Khan had convened the Waqf Adalat and a meeting of the Waqf Board. He had given the deadline for the officers to conduct a survey of the land belonging to the Waqf Board and make khatas of those lands.

The authorities have already mentioned that the land belongs to the Waqf Board in the RTC documents of farmers. This has pushed the farmers to be concerned about their ownership of the lands which they inherited for generations, Annigeri stated.

“The Waqf law was passed in the Lok Sabha during the tenure of former late PM Jawahar Lal Nehru in 1954 in India. In 1995, the former late PM P.V. Narasimha Rao's government brought amendments to the Waqf laws and gave more powers. The most tragic factor is that in 2013, the UPA government led by former PM Manmohan Singh gave immense power to the Waqf board. This is against the interest of farmers and people of the country,” he said.

“If the land is claimed by the Waqf board, the people can’t approach the normal courts but they are compelled to approach the Waqf Board. There will be no representation of Hindus and people of other religions on the board. The victims are forced to go before those, who had taken away their lands,” Annigeri added.

“I own three acres of land and I don’t have any guarantee that the ownership of the land will remain with me anymore. In this backdrop, along with farmers’ organizations, we are staging a protest demanding scrapping of the Waqf laws,” he said.

Farmer leader Arvind Kulkarni stated, “Waqf Minister Zameer Ahmad had come to Vijayapura recently and ordered officers to take the lands claimed by the Waqf board. The whole district, especially, in three villages of Indi taluk in column number 11 of the RTC land records of farmers, the authorities have mentioned that the property belongs to the Waqf board.”

“The banks are already refusing to sanction loans to farmers. The farmers are also not able to sell their lands. They are shocked and panicked by the development. On top of it, taking advantage of this, the Waqf board has taken loans on the lands. This is big fraud committed on the farmers,” he charged.

Laal Saab Mulla, a farmer, who participated in the protest said, “I come from Hoovina Hipparagi village. I am a Muslim and come from a family of 12 to 13 brothers. We have been tilling 110 acres of land for generations. Now, the records show that the Sunni Waqf Board has the ownership. Whenever we approach the national bank, they are refusing to provide loans. No notice is issued to us by the Waqf board. The entire thing has not come to our notice at all.”

Since the Deputy Commissioner didn’t turn up, the farmers decided to meet the Large and Medium Industries Minister M.B. Patil at his residence in Vijayapura on Sunday and are planning to submit a memorandum to him.