4,500 acres gobbled up in Bangalore

4,500 acres gobbled up in Bangalore

Deccan Herald

About 4,500 acres of government land around Bangalore city is estimated to have been encroached by land sharks. A task force constituted to identify the extent of encroachments around Bangalore has come to such a conclusion.

Disclosing this to reporters in Bangalore on Wednesday, Revenue Minister M P Prakash said the task force, that had been constituted by the previous S M Krishna government, had submitted its report to him recently.

But the minister suspected that the extent of encroachment could be much more than this. Hence he has directed the task force to conduct a re-estimate of the encroachments. Referring to complaints that there were several instances in which government land in and around Bangalore had been allotted to fake educational institutions and trusts, the minister said he would review the land allotments to various institutions within a week.

The proposed norms, aimed at bringing about transparency in allotment of land, would ensure that land mafia do not grab the land in the name of fictitious institutions, the minister said.

The new norms would be placed before the State Cabinet in its next meeting for clearance. The minister said the scheme to allow private surveyors to conduct survey of farm lands would recommence in the state with the Karnataka High Court vacating a stay on the implementation of the scheme.

About 2,000 private surveyors had been given licenses by the government to take up survey of farm lands, he said. Nearly 1.87 lakh applications, seeking survey of farm lands, were pending.