'State government can solve Baane problems'

The Kodagu Unification Forum on Thursday has said that the long-pending Jamma-Bane issue in Kodagu district could not be solved with the intervention of the President, but it could be solved by the State government.

Addressing media persons, Forum office-bearer Thammu Poovaiah alleged that MLA K G Boapaiah and M P Appachu Ranjan were misguiding the people by furnishing wrong information about Jamma issue.

The Governor has forwarded the amendment pertaining to Jamma which was passed in the Assembly to the President and the MLAs are waiting for the President to settle the matter.

And the chances are very less that the President would intervene in the issue, as firstly the Jamma-Bane issue is connected to the land revenue, land reforms and land sanctioning policies and the issue is pertaining to the State and not the Centre. Hence, the President or the Central government can not interfere and settle the matter, he stated.

Citing the second reason on the writ petition pertaining to Godhavarman Thirumalpad case, he said the Supreme Court has sought for the information of the forest land of various states including in Karnataka.

The Bane land has been recorded as deemed forest land in the documents available with the Forest Department. Therefore, the President can not interfere in the matter as the issue is in the Supreme Court, he revealed.

The office-bearers of the Forum including Biddatanda Thammaiah, M K Appachu and others have stressed that the issue could be solved within six months, if the politicians come out of the ‘vote bank’ mindset.

 The Forum has come forward with a few suggestions which include, survey the land available under Bane land cultivators in Kodagu and obtain the proper statistics, identify the land which is used for agriculture but with revenue exemption, form a special survey team for conducting the survey and submit the survey details to the Supreme Court and cancel deemed-forest status to the Bane land.