Waqf row: JPC Chairman meets farmers in Hubballi, says "fact-finding report to be presented in winter session"

"We will submit the report in the upcoming (winter) session of Parliament," Pal said while speaking with ANI, adding that he was visiting the state to meet farmers after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Tejasvi Surya invited him.

"I came here along with my team and on the invitation of Tejasvi Surya. Here, farmers who have had their lands with them for decades are aggrieved. The farmers have been working and cultivating their land since the 1920s. I had come to meet them. My team was in Bengaluru last month, and again tomorrow I am going to Guwahati. As the Chairman of the Waqf Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), if in any state the farmers are aggrieved, I can come and meet them. I can go alone as the Chairman to prepare the report and with my committee too. I am going across the country. Our work is preparing a comprehensive report by holding discussions with the stakeholders," Pal said.

Pal said that the JPC committee has received at least one crore memorandums on their online portal. "This is why we are going across the country to talk with the stakeholders," he added.

This comes after Pal met the farmers' organisations in Hubballi who told him about their grievance over the alleged Waqf land grab issue.

Earlier, Congress MP Mohammad Jawed on Thursday lashed out at JPC Chairman Pal, accusing him of not working in the interest of Parliamentary democracy by taking a "unilateral" decision to visit Karnataka to meet the farmers. He said that the entire JPC team should pay a visit there.

"The entire JPC team should be go there. Who gave him (JPC Chairman Pal) this authority? This is unfortunate. It is not appropriate to take this unilateral and political decision, especially when the Karnataka Government has made it clear that the land will remain with them. It is not appropriate to make it a political issue. JPC Chairman's action is not in the interest of parliamentary democracy," said Jawed. (ANI)