Govt Land Worth Rs 187 Cr Recovered
BANGALORE: The Bangalore Urban district administration on Wednesday recovered 61.33 acres of land worth `187 crore, encroached upon by individuals and organisations.
The land was recovered with the help of the Special Task Force and the jurisdictional police.
V Shankar, Deputy Commissioner, Bangalore Urban, told Express that 37 acres in Anekal taluk and 24.33 acres of Junsandra Lake in Bangalore East taluk were encroached upon.
He said that eight accused, including the KPCL Housing Society, had encroached upon the Junsandra Lake. Some encroachers claimed that the land belonged to them by showing fictitious documents, he added.
“In Anekal taluk, one Sampangi, who owns only four acres, had encroached upon 37 acres where crops were grown. A total of 41 acres were in his possession. The officials have taken back the land that belongs to the government in both the places,” he said.
Bangalore East taluk tahsildar Harish Nayak said that the encroachers used ‘Inaam Gram’ (a gift) excuse and claimed that the land was granted to them in 1994 by the Land Tribunal. Since these claims did not work, they adopted other means to claim ownership.
“The eviction orders were passed two months ago. On Wednesday, Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) officials and the STF recovered the land and marked the boundary,” said Nayak.
“We are planning to file a criminal case against government land encroachers,” he added.
BDA to Develop Area
The DC gave oral instructions to BDA officials to take over the possession and complete the fencing and develop the area.
B. Mallikarjun, assistant engineer, BDA, said, “The BDA will take up the development activity in two phases. We will first complete the steel fencing and leave 100 ft surrounding the lake to develop a park and walking area.”
Officials said the DC’s office is considering issuing instructions to the tahsildar to refer the case to the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force to take action against government land encroachers.
They said they chose Wednesday, a day before the holiday week started, to carry out the drive in order to preempt the land mafia from taking recourse to legal means and thwarting their efforts.