BENGALURU: Worried with the rising number of applications seeking permission to approve unauthorised works on government lands, officials from the Bengaluru Urban district office have asked the government to either stop schemes or subsidies.The deputy commissioner’s office every day gets many applications from citizens seeking compensation for crop loss or for legalising their unauthorised buildings or crops grown on government lands.
Over the last two years, the DC’s office has received applications pertaining to Form 53, 57, 94-C and 94-CC. It has rejected 4,263 applications under Form 53, 3,809 under Form 57, 4,007 under Form 94-C and 9,987 under 94-CC.Forms 53 and 57 are for seeking permission to authorise cultivation done unauthorisedly on government lands. Since there is no scope for further land allocations, applications are filed before the DC to permit the lands in the names of farmers cultivating them. Similar is the case with
applications filed under forms 94-C and 94-CC where buildings have been built illegally and work is continuing from the lands.
“Many applications were pending before the DC for last two years and all of them have been rejected in one go as they amount to encroachment. While the government is talking of clearing encroachments and recovering government lands, it has also created such forms to legalise these illegalities. We are requesting the government to stop such forms and applications. We have sought reforms in the process for clarity among government agencies and also citizens,” said a senior official seeking anonymity.
Officials from the revenue department said this step will reduce the revenue earned from applications and penalties enforced, but in the long run it will be beneficial for developmental works. “The government schemes and subsidies contradict with many other government and High Court orders. It becomes difficult for us on the ground to manage such situations. It is better if the government revises these schemes and takes a relook at them,” the official from the DC’s office said.