BENGALURU: The district administration on Monday continued its encroachment-clearing drive and recovered government land worth at least Rs 500 crore in market value.
L C Nagaraj, Assistant Commissioner, Bengaluru South, said this was an accidental discovery as a few officials stumbled upon this empty land in Hoskerehalli village, prompting them to check the records.
“During inspection, we found there was 15.27 acres of B karab land belonging to the Revenue Department in two survey numbers of Hoskerehalli village in Uttarahalli hobli, Bengaluru South taluk. In survey number 75/1, 7.27 acres and in survey number 75/2, 8 acres have been declared as karab. KIADB had acquired 2 acres and 5 guntas, Bangalore Development Authority has taken 3.26 acres and NICE firm has taken 29 guntas.
“A few members of the land mafia created fake documents and rented the remaining land for commercial purposes,” Nagaraj said.
It is said that one Nanjundaswamappa, who was granted 2.11 acres next to this land, was behind this, but there are no records to establish his links in creating fake documents.
Besides, land belonging to the Revenue Department was reclaimed.
The establishments razed on government land are one restaurant, two dhabas, two scrap dealers’ shops, space for lorry and bus service station, wine stores, a cement factory, a timber shop and a real estate office.
The district administration also razed a three-storeyed under-construction building belonging to Kammavari Sangha.
All the people were given notices in advance, Nagaraj said.
“People had rented government land and over Rs 8 lakh was being collected from them. Market value of this land is around Rs 500 crore,” he said.
He added that the land can be used by the Tourism Department and a theme park may be developed here. “There was a suggestion to put up a police station as well,” Nagaraj said.
The land was recovered in the presence of the task force, revenue officials and jurisdictional police.