BCC acts to recover Byrasandra tank

BCC acts to recover Byrasandra tank
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) has vowed to recover the Byrasandra tank bed that was auctioned off on February 4 by the Debts Recovery Tribunal (DRT).

Sources in the BCC revealed that a ‘‘claim application’’ (CA) had been filed on February 17 before the debt recovery officer. BCC advocate Puttegowda told this website’s newspaper, ‘‘We had earlier filed an Interim Application before the High Court seeking direction from the court to the DRT to accept BCC’s claim application. Justice Kumar has directed the DRT to accept our application.’’

‘‘After filing the CA, we have issued notices to all parties involved in the auction. We now await an answer from the Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) and the person who purchased the property,” Puttegowda said.

Sources from the forest department said they too have filed a CA before the DRT on February 18 and clarified that the tank bed was given by the BCC to the forest department.

The claim application filed by the forest department before the DRT under Rule 62 of the Schedule II of the Income Tax Act R/W Section 29 of the recovery of debts clearly states that the property measuring 15 acres and 11 guntas was acquired by the forest department on February 8, 1991.

The application also states that copies of the record of rights marked as Annexures A1 to A8 between 1991-2004 were produced before the DRT. The application finally asks the recovering officer not to agree to the sale of the tank bed.

Sources in the IOB law department alleged: ‘‘The land will not be acquired by the BCC. The tank bed was agricultural land and this does not come under the purview of the Government, by law. Therefore they cannot acquire it.’’

In the BCC council meeting held recently, Commissioner K. Jyothiramalingam clarified to the Opposition that the tank bed was public property. Puttegowda said, ‘‘The land surrounding the tank bed was used for agricultural purposes in the past, but survey No-56 was set aside for developing the tank bed.

“The N. Lakshman Rau Committee, appointed by the Government of Karnataka, submitted a report in 1985 and declared that the tank bed should be preserved and deemed it public property. The BCC has all documents stating that land was set aside for a tank bed.’’