BANGALORE: Yediyur corporator N R Ramesh has accused Chickpet MLA R V Devaraj and former councillor T V Prabhu of encroaching upon a Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) land in a prime location.
He told reporters on Friday that many elected representatives have encroached upon BBMP lands and got them registered in their names using “false documents”. “It is a case of the fence eating the crops. Devaraj and Prabhu have encroached upon 5,211 sqft of BBMP property on Siddaiah Road, besides registering 3,299 sqft in their names,” Ramesh said.
According to official records, in 1976, the then city corporation had acquired land from M A Krishnamurthy to lay a link road between Siddaiah Road and Krumbigal Road and given him another land in return. The corporation owns around 5.5 acres on the road. However, no link road was laid, Ramesh said.
He accused the civic body of not protecting its properties and said it is yet to reclaim one property whose lease period ended in November 2011. “The officials have not just failed to protect BBMP property, they have also issued khatas, sanctioned building plans and issued trade licences to those who have encroached upon the lands. This shows their attitude towards BBMP,” he said.
He also claimed that Shantinagar MLA N A Haris (Congress) and JC Nagar councillor N Govindaraju had grabbed BBMP land worth `400 crore on Millers Tank.
Meanwhile, BBMP’s ruling party leader Ashwath Narayan Gowda told reporters that officials would be directed to look into encroachment cases and reclaim BBMP lands.
‘WE PURCHASED LAND LEGALLY’
The two leaders accused by corporator Ramesh have denied the charges. Former councillor T V Prabhu said the land he had purchased belonged to a private party. “It was legally purchased and was not a BBMP property,” he said. Chickpet MLA R V Devaraj said he had bought the property after verification of documents by the Department of City Survey and Land Records. “I will provide the purchase documents to anyone who wants to verify them. These allegations are baseless and have been raised to gain political mileage and tarnish my image.”