Encroachers thrive on authorities’ inaction

Encroachers thrive on authorities’ inaction
The Times of India

Bangalore: In KR Puram alone, there are a whopping 109 apartments which have been constructed without any approvals. And what are the officials doing about it? Nothing much actually, they have issued notices to the developers. And the matter ends there.
When the chairman of Joint House Committee of Legislature on Land Encroachment Survey MLA A T Ramaswamy, who held a public hearing on government land encroachments on Tuesday, enquired officers about the action taken against illegal buildings, the standard reply he got was: “We have issued notices to the builders.’’
The committee members were briefed about the illegal apartments that had mushroomed in large numbers in the CMCs around the city and encroachment of government lands without any checks by authorities.
Deputy commissioner, Bangalore urban, M A Sadiq admitted that several original records of the government and gomal land encroachments have been
damaged resulting in non-availability of records. He suggested that an exclusive task force be constituted to look into the land encroachments and carry out demolitions.
The committee members also discussed the Bannerghatta National Park protected area, where nearly 780 acres were said to be encroached upon. Sadiq informed the committee that a prestigious school was one among the encroachers which had encroached upon 4.31 acres.
Similarly, in Yelahanka, 1,046 acres of government land has gone into the hands of land grabbers of which 51 acres have been recovered by the authorities. Here, fake land documents were used to grab 244 acres, Sadiq told the hearing at Vidyanagar, Bangalore north taluk.
The committee also discussed encroachment of forest land on the catchment area of Sankey Lake. This land was given to the forest department by the erstwhile Mysore government. The BMP had issued notice and the matter is in HC.