Bidding for govt land starts now

Bidding for govt land starts now
The Times of India

Bangalore: In Konenagrahara, an acre of government land has been bought for Rs 3 crore, but the guidance value is just a few thousands there! Similarly, at Vibhuthipura, people have paid as high as Rs 2.6 crore for an acre of land.

Government properties, with clear titles and litigation-free, are up for grabs now. After laying hands on 7,000 acres of land encroached for decades, the revenue department has ventured into auctioning them once they’ve been cleared of encroachments. The exercise, which started in March, has elicited a positive response, raking in good moolah for the government coffers.

Revenue secretary S.M. Jaamdar said the department has been able to mop up Rs 33.34 crore by auctioning 42.76 acres. So far, 224 acres of land have been cleared of encroachments and are up for auctioning. The government has already conducted seven auctions; five in Bangalore Urban and two in Bangalore Rural areas.

In Vibhuthipura, off the airport, the department auctioned 7.36 acres for Rs 19.2 crore — an acre was sold for Rs 2.6 crore. Similarly, in Konenagrahara, 4.1 acres was sold for Rs 12.35 crore; in Kenchenahalli, 1.3 acres was auctioned for Rs 90 lakh. The guidance value of land per acre is Rs 25,000 in Uttihalli where five acres of revenue land were auctioned for Rs 71 lakh. In interior Mallasandra, an acre was sold for Rs 23 lakh. In Doddaballapur taluk, 16 acres were auctioned for Rs 7.7 lakh in Singenahalli, while eight acres were sold for Rs 6.22 lakh at Raghunathpura, Jaamdar informed.

“These lands are free from litigations and are converted lands. Hence, bidding has touched all-time high. We have issued guidelines to buyers about the land use pattern. The builders have to strictly follow the pattern earmarked in the outline development and comprehensive development plans. Zonal regulations have to be adhered to and the layouts should be approved by the local planning authorities,’’ Jaamdar explained.

This apart, the department has allotted over 500 acres of land in the city to various civic agencies — KSRTC and BMTC to construct bus stations and depots, BCC to develop parks and build crematoria and KPTC to set up sub-stations. The lands have been sold at
50% of its guidance value.

The revenue department had identified 7,000 acres of government land that have been encroached upon in and around Bangalore. While an estimated 3,000 acres have been encroached upon in Bangalore Urban, nearly 4,000 acres have gone into the hands of land-grabbers in the Rural area. Moreover, over the past three years alone, around 3 lakh acres of land have been converted.

Shockingly, the encroachments were done in connivance with revenue department employees, and in a majority of the cases, documents have been forged. According to Jaamdar, criminal cases have been registered against 71 employees/officials, but several of them have retired, a few are dead and those in service have been suspended.