No free govt land for religious institutions any more

The State Cabinet has approved a new land policy as proposed by the Centre wherein, henceforth, all government lands being leased to religious institutions will be given at a minimum of 50 per cent of the guidance value.

Briefing the media after the Cabinet meeting on Saturday, Law Minister T B Jayachandra said the government had authorised the land allocation to religious institutions at a minimum of 50 per cent of the guidance value for organisations which are declared under general   and at 25 per cent the guidance value for organisations which are declared under SC/ST category.

“There is no question of giving land for free to any institution. While there are provisions under extraordinary circumstances for the Cabinet to approve land allotment for free, we will expect at least a token sum from organisations for the land which will be given to them,” said Jayachandra.

In case of educational institutions, SC/ST organisations and individuals will be given government land at 50 per cent of the guidance value and for others at 50 per cent the market value. For industrial purposes, SC/ST lessees will be given land at 10 per cent guidance value and for others at 10 per cent of the market value.

The Cabinet also approved the final notification for the new central government enacted land acquisition policy, wherein the State will be giving four times the land value to farmers who are parting with their property for infrastructure projects.

 “With this, Karnataka will become the first State to implement the new land acquisition policy approved by the previous UPA regime,” said Jayachandra. 

The decision to proceed with the final notification of the new land policy was approved after a Cabinet sub-committee made a few changes to the original policy. The law minister said that the sub-committee, which was headed by himself, received no less than 359 objections and suggestions after the preliminary notification. “The new policy will be notified in the next eight to 10 days,” he said.

The formation of a consultative committee, on the lines of those existing in the Centre, was approved by the State Cabinet for any possible reforms to the Parliamentary affairs department.

“We wanted to set up a consultative committee comprising 10 to 30 members, who will be primarily MLAs, experts and the leader of the opposition, for suggesting any reforms or changes in the policies of the department. There is no financial bearing on the government with the formation of these committees. We have started this process with the Parliamentary affairs department,” said Jayachandra.