'Amendment to land Act will hit environment'

Urging the State government not to table the Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2012, in the forthcoming legislature session, Congress leader B K Chandrashekar, said the government should instead refer the proposed amendments to a joint select committee.

Addressing the media on Monday, Chandrashekar said the amendments to the Act should be introduced based on the recommendations of the committee. He said the amendments proposed to allow farmers to lease out their land for agro-based industries without any provision for supervision by the State or its agencies to check mis-utilisation. 

He also said that the proposed amendments would have serious implications on the environment. Sporadic setting up of agro-based industries would lead to incidental human settlements, bringing in infrastructure in environmentally fragile areas. He also said it would re-introduce the absentee land lord culture.