Hassan KPRS stages protest seeking grant of land for landless families of Karekere Kavalu

KPRS protests in Hassan, demanding land for landless Dalit families of Karekere Kavalu to secure their cultivation rights.

Members of the Hassan district unit of the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS) staged a protest in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Hassan on February 4, urging the district administration to grant land to landless Dalit families of Karekere Kavalu village in Hassan taluk.

KPRS leaders, along with Dalit Hakkugala Samiti and residents of the village, staged a dharna in front of the office and also submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner on the issue.

KPRS district president H.R. Naveen Kumar said the State government granted 246 acres of land, located in various survey numbers of Karekere Kavalu village, to 30 Dalit families in 1966. Among them, only 10 families took possession of the land and cultivated it, while the remaining 20 families did not cultivate the land granted to them.

However, 47 additional landless Dalit families possessed the same land and had been cultivating it for the past 60 years. They had submitted applications for the grant of land according to forms 50, 53, and 57 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act. Meanwhile, a few vested interests had been attempting to evict these families from the land they had been cultivating.

“These 47 families have no alternative land to cultivate. Considering their long-term possession and cultivation, the government should grant them land by cancelling the previous grants,” Mr. Kumar demanded..

Dalit Hakkugala Samiti district president M.G. Pruthvi, Karekere Kavalu village residents H. Swamy, Panduranga, Devaraju, Sunil, Ravi Kumar, Dharma, Meenakshi, and others led the protest.