Over 13,000 acres of Govt land encroached upon: Committee

Bangalore, Dec 21 (UNI) A Joint House Committee on Land Encroachment in the city and surrounding areas, headed by Mr A T Ramaswamy, has identified 13,614 acres of government land encroached upon by land grabbers.

After submitting the interim report to Assembly Speaker Krishna here today, Mr Ramaswamy told mediapersons that the value of the land, taking into consideration the guidance value of the Stamps and Registration department, had been estimated at Rs 27,377.75 crore.

The land value was likely to double at the present market rate.

Recommending the setting up of a Special Legal Authority for handling cases related to land grabbing, he said the Committee had identified large scale land grabbing of government lands under the purview of 15 departments and the Revenue department topped in both murky deals and quantum of land encroached upon.

It had found that over three lakh bogus possession certificates had been issued to encroachers in connivance with officials of the Revenue department. Large scale 'invisible' land grabbing was also on by getting titles on production of fake documents, Mr Ramaswamy said, adding that it was a challenge for the Committee to probe it.

Stating that Bangalore had become a safe haven for land sharks and real estate businessmen, he said the city had become infamous for land grabbing in the country.

The Committee had received 486 complaints from the public, held 19 meetings and visited 46 spots.

UNI SIV GD KD DS1555