Bengaluru (PTI): Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly R Ashoka has urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Joint Parliamentary Committee Chairperson on Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024 Jagadambika Pal to instruct the State's Chief Secretary to immediately stop all land registrations to Waqf Board until the proceedings of the JPC are complete.

In a letter addressed to them, the senior BJP leader claimed that "hasty attempts" are being made to register lands claimed by the Waqf Board perhaps in anticipation of the amendment that the JPC could bring to the Waqf Act.

"As part of this pre-emptive attempt, the state government and Waqf board have reportedly begun altering revenue records, transferring ownership of farmers' lands to the Waqf. This hurried whitewashing and registering of unjust claims of land to Waqf Boards will deprive thousands of farmers and poor people of Karnataka of their just and ancestral property rights," Ashoka said.

According to him, the issue came to light after notices were served to hundreds of farmers claiming about 15,000 acres of land in Vijayapura district; it is alleged that across each district of Karnataka, approximately 10,000 acres of land are reportedly being claimed by the Waqf Board in this "clandestine manner."

"Additionally, the Waqf board is also claiming lands belonging to temples, mutts and other religious organisations. It is shocking that even graveyards belonging to Hindu community are being claimed as Waqf properties. The 13th century Virakta Mutt's 1.28 acres land in Sindagi, the historical Someshwara temple in Vijayapura, the Beeradevara temple in Kalaburagi and several other temples across Karnataka are reportedly being claimed by the Waqf board," he alleged.

Ashoka, a former Deputy Chief Minister, also claimed that these hasty attempts to register properties claimed by Waqf board has created insecurity and panic among people and has erupted in violence in Haveri district.

"In the light of these incidents, I urge you to instruct the Chief Secretary of Government of Karnataka to immediately stop all land registrations to Waqf Board until the proceedings of the JPC are complete," he added in the letter.

 

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ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.

“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.

The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.

Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.