BENGALURU: The Bengaluru Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) has released data of the past five years which shows that of the 3,345 petitions from 2017, 2,449 have been resolved, and 896 are still pending. The agency has filed 281 criminal cases, 97 chargesheets and B report in 34 cases related to BBMP while 130 cases are under investigation.
In 2017, data shows that 477 petitions to reclaim the land belonging to agencies like BBMP, BWSSB, BDA were filed, and BMTF has disposed of 475. In 2018, the agency had received 471 petitions and 456 cases were disposed of while in 2019, 628 petitions were received of which 581 were disposed of. In 2020, 290 petitions were received and 398 were disposed of, and in 2021, of 715 petitions, 405 were disposed of. In 2022 till June, 564 petitions were received and 132 disposed of. Following the pandemic, pending cases have increased marginally, an officer said. Some RTI activists had alleged the agency has received thousands of petitions and filed only 13 B reports in cases related to BBMP properties.
“Cases have been filed under provisions of Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act 1976, The Bengaluru Development Act 1976, The Karnataka Municipalities Act, 1964, The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Act 1964 and Karnataka Slum Areas (Improvement and clearance Act, 1973, and government properties worth hundreds of crores have been reclaimed over the past five years. After Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act 1976 was repealed and BBMP Act 2020 was enacted, the agency has been asking for more powers to book land grabbers,” said Ramachandra Rao, ADGP, BMTF.