Government orders demolition of Hotel Atria

Government orders demolition of Hotel Atria
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The State Government has ordered demolition of the elite Atria Hotel and a few other structures surrounding it on Palace Road in Bangalore and recover the property. The action from the Revenue department followed an elaborate enquiry to re-claim the government land measuring 4 acres 3 guntas.

In all, there are 10 occupants of the area including former Chief Secretary M Shankaranarayanan. The fact that the land is government owned was first discovered by IAS officer B A Harish Gowda, who went into the antecedents of the property as KPSC Secretary, and submitted a report to the Government last year. The report was later referred to then Bangalore Urban Deputy Commissioner G S Narayanaswamy who issued notices to all the parties informing them about the findings and asking them to furnish their version.

He conducted a hearing and submitted a report to the Revenue department endorsing Gowda's findings. The Deputy Commissioner later complied with the Government direction and issued demolition orders.

This website’s newspaper had carried a three-part series about the case from June 26, 2004.

Revenue Minister M P Prakash informed reporters on Friday that Bangalore Urban Deputy Commissioner M A Sadiq has issued orders to demolish the structure on the grounds that they had come up on government land.

The Minister said that the Atria management had approached him seeking his intervention in the case but he declined on the grounds that it was an order following an elaborate enquiry by the Revenue department.

The facts came to light, Prakash said, after Atria Hotel raised a boundary dispute with the KPSC when the latter tried to build a compound wall. The two properties are situated next to each other.

The Revenue Minister said that the hotel claimed to have purchased the land from the family members of the then Diwan of Mysore, the Kantharaje Urs.

‘‘Instead of going for a regular registration, the Atria group floated a trust and included the family members of the late Diwan. After sometime, the group removed the family members from the trust and converted it into a family trust,'' he said.