About 965 acres of government land in the Green Belt area around Bannerghatta has been encroached upon for illegal layouts. Following repeated complaints about the violations, Bangalore Urban Deputy Commissioner G C Prakash on Monday conducted a raid in Bannerghatta gram panchayat limits of Anekal and found 794 illegal layouts.
Prakash told Express: “Illegal constructions have come up in gomala (grazing) land, on rajakaluve (main storm water drain) and gundlu topu (forestry land), gramathana (village administered land) and kharab (barren) land. Some layouts have been formed in just one acre, others in three acres. I have ordered eviction of the same.’’
The raid that started from 10 am went on till 3 pm. The DC had summoned panchayat officials and revenue officers. Prakash pointed out that most of the government land in Anekal taluk comes under the Green Belt. One such case is encroachment of the land belonging to the Champakadhama Temple.
According to official figures, the temple should have 33 acres.
After several encroachments, the temple presently has less then 5 acres. The Bannerghatta Lake too has shrunk and there is no water, no storm water drain and no culverts because of encroachments.
“I had asked for the documents of the whole of Anekal, so that we can know extent of the encroachment. I will initiate action on those who were involved in these illegalities,” Prakash said.
Prakash said government land was sold to builders in connivance with gram panchayat officials. “This was resold to middle class people,” he added.
‘Issue Notice to Warn People’
More than 20,000 sites can be been formed in this encroached area. Officials have been asked to issue a notice in newspapers warning public not to buy revenue land, as it will have legal complications.
Around 34,000 acres of land in Bangalore Urban has been encroached as per the reports of A T Ramaswamy Committee. While 17,000 acres were taken back by various government departments, the district administration has recovered 10,000 acres.
The remaining 7,000 acres are still encroached.