Land grab: Abettor officer is scot-free

Land grab: Abettor officer is scot-free
By P M Raghunandan, DH News Service, Bangalore:
A KAS officer has allegedly helped land sharks grab property worth Rs 50 crore. But the State government, instead of filing criminal charges is surprisingly looking the other way.


As more and more tangles in the heinous saga of land encroachment around Bangalore continue to unravel every day, the first instance of a senior bureaucrat abetting a land grab instance has come to light.
A Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) officer has allegedly helped land sharks grab property worth Rs 50 crore. But the State government, instead of filing criminal charges against the guilty official, is surprisingly looking the other way.
The officer in question is M A Khalid (KAS), Joint Commissioner (West Zone), Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). The BBMP’s enforcement wing, the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF), has found the official guilty of “abetting” the encroachers and “dereliction of duty”.
But despite the BMTF tabling its inquiry report, a copy of which is available with Deccan Herald, finding Khalid guilty in the Chowbeena Subbarao property encroachment case (reported in these columns on May 9, 2007) as early as on December 12, 2006, no action has been taken against him so far.
In fact, Khalid continues to hold the executive position in the Bangalore city civic body.
As per the Karnataka Land Revenue (Amendment) Act 2007, criminal cases can be filed against any official who abets encroachers grab government land.
The BMTF inquiry report has been kept under wraps by the government. For four months now, the report is gathering dust in the State Urban Development department.

Inquiry
The BMTF initiated the inquiry into the case following directions from the Legislature Committee headed by A T Ramaswamy probing government land encroachment in Bangalore Urban.
According to the BMTF inquiry report, two persons — C R Shamanna and Venkatesh — got the khata of Chowbeena Subbarao property located on 3rd cross, Chamarajpet transferred to their names by producing fictitious documents on March, 19, 2004 with the help of the then BMP Second Division Assistant (SDA) T G Ramachandra.
The then Assistant Revenue Officer (ARO) H C Srinivasulu transferred the khata in their names.
The property, according to the report, actually belonged to the State Religious and Endowment department and the khata was in its name.
The property, a building comprising 10 shops, was actually willed to the department by one Chowbeena Subbarao.
The department then challenged the transfer of khata before the Special Deputy Commissioner, Bangalore Urban District, which rejected the claims of the duo and declared that the department is the rightful owner.
Subsequently, the department filed an appeal before the BMP Joint Commissioner Khalid to review the BMP decision to transfer the khata of the property.
But Khalid in his order dated July 6, 2006 not only rejected the department’s appeal but upheld the decision of his sub-ordinate officer (the ARO) to transfer the khata to Shamanna and Venkatesh, “helping them to gobble up the government land”, the BMTF report said.