30,000 acres of govt land grabbed in Bangalore

Bangalore, July 26: An estimated 30,000 acres of land belonging to various departments and statutory bodies of Government of Karnataka have been encroached in Bangalore Urban District, a committee of the State legislature today disclosed.

The second report of the Joint Legislature Committee on encroachment in Bangalore Urban District submitted to the State Assembly by its Chairman A T Ramaswamy said land grabbers have carried out their illegal activities with the assistance of fake documents concocted by officials. There was not even a single instance of Government acting agaisnt these land grabbers who had faked documents to carryout their illegal activities, the report said.

It suggested that a committee of experts from Town and Country Planning, architects and citizens should be set up to prepare a Master Plan for the optimum and ideal use of the available government land recovered from land grabbers. Such land should not be auctioned in a hurry to the builders and no land would be left for genuine requirements, the 130 page report said.

The report also made various recommendations for controlling of this menace in future including setting up of a reliable investigating and procecuting authority besides a special court. It said that the government should take stringent action against the land grabbers and their abettors. "Of the long list of erring Housing Cooperatives the most notorious is the Judicial Employees' Cooperatives", it said.

The report made mentions of 84 judges from Hight Court and Supreme Court in this connection. It said that the allottees also included family members of the judges, police officials, politicians and contractors.

It said that the people in authority vested with legal powers to enforce law have become mute spectators or, worse reluctant or even willing participants. There are 305 Housing cooperatives of which 72 were defunct, it said.

It said that in the coming days the Committee would prepare report on department-wise showing the names, addresses and extent of encroachment of the encroachers.

UNI