K'taka: Church protest govt move to take back land for leprosy affected

The Catholic Church in Bangalore has come out strongly against the state government's intent to take back 45 acres of land from Sumanahalli Society, a church-managed rehabilitation centre for leprosy patients.

Archbishop of Bangalore Bernard Moras on Monday said the Cabinet decision to take back 45 acres that is with the society has "hurt us deeply".

He told reporters that his archdiocese has been making use of the land to care for leprosy patients and destitute people in the city for the past 36 years.

The archdiocese spends around Rs. 4 crore a year on maintaining the society. Established in 1978, Sumanahalli Society has served more than 10,000 leprosy patients besides the poor schoolchildren, AIDS-affected, destitute and disabled persons. It was set up in response to a request from the then Chief Minister Devaraj Urs.

Although the 30-year lease period expired in 2007, the Church was assured of an extension to continue treating and rehabilitating the leprosy patients.

Archbishop Moras said the archdiocese had put in a lot of effort to treat leprosy patients with compassion and dignity.

Fr George Kannanthanam, Director, Sumanahalli Society, said the management had on several occasions informed the state government as well as the governor on the possible move to take away the Society land.

Apparently, even the State Human Rights Commission and the State Minorities Commission passed orders in favour of the Church.

"Despite the Human Rights commission's strong observations, the appeal from the Governor and a strong public support for the cause, the decision was taken by the cabinet on September 21 that 45 acres of the Society will be taken back leaving it with only five acres," said Archbishop Moras.

"Despite being invited to take up this most difficult work and having very successfully carried out this work, it is nothing but a very vindictive attitude to the Christian community that is clearly shown through this decision. This is a betrayal of the community by the government," he said.

Archbishop Moras recalled that the Church was given land to take care of leprosy affected persons as government agencies were unable to provide the kind of care they required.

"The leased land was used by the Sumanahalli Society to establish itself and develop a strategy and varied activities not only to take care of over 10,000 leprosy affected persons but also to rehabilitate most of them through education, vocational training, job placement, housing and marriages within the past 35 years," he said in a media release.

"It is impossible to contain the activities of Sumanahalli within five acres of land. Moreover the buildings are spread throughout the 50 acre campus."

Sumanahalli has used and developed the whole campus constructing more than 50 buildings at the cost of over 25 crores to provide the best of services.

The Church has now decided to take up "legal and democratic measures" to ensure land is retained for the purpose of the care and rehabilitation of the destitute people.