A land grab mired in history

A land grab mired in history
By R Krishnakumar, DH News Service, Bangalore:
Even as members of the A T Ramaswamy committee go cracking down on encroachers of government land in and around Bangalore, they have a snag to fix before charging responsibility of the violation in certain cases...

Even as members of the A T Ramaswamy committee go cracking down on encroachers of government land in and around Bangalore, they have a snag to fix before charging responsibility of the violation in certain cases: The exhaustive timeline over which some encroachments have been made.

A case in point is the encroachment of 180 acres of government land in Sy No 137 in B M Kaval (Choodanahalli Village) wherein the ownership records were tampered with as early as in 1954.

With the Ramaswamy committee declaring the land as encroached, the onus of bringing the culprits to book now rests with government officials. Following an interim order of the High Court in 2006, the Special Deputy Commissioner was directed to furnish more details on the encroachment. The Special DC’s report is yet to be presented.

According to documents in possession of Deccan Herald, the Committee has asked the Inspector-General of Registration (IGR) to furnish names of the sub-registrars who registered the documents, in 1968 and 1969. However, considering the case’s long-drawn nature, the chances of the real culprits feeling the heat are moderate.

It was in 1941 that the survey number 137 spread over 310 acres was brought under sarkari phada (government land). In 1954, parts of the land were handed over, free of cost, to 11 people (six acres each) from Bovi community under the Grow More Food (GMF) schemes. However, while making the mutation entries in the village records in 1954, 18 people were listed, instead of the original 11. The figure describing the extent of land was also tampered with, and changed from six acres to 16 acres each.

In this survey no, 180 acres of land was purchased by liquor baron K L Srihari Khoday and others in two phases — 117 acres and 63 acres, in 1968 and 1969 respectively.

Subsequent to a writ petition in the High Court by Mr D N Vijayakumar and others, the Deputy Commissioner verified the records and declared in 2003, that the alleged land transfer by virtue of the sale deeds of 1968 and 1969 was not legal, since the transaction was without the proper right or title. Following this, the land was taken over by the government, free of encumbrances.

In 2004, the HC allowed a writ petition filed by Mr Khoday and others and the case was remanded to the DC, who in 2005 directed the Special Tahsildar to cancel the entries made in Mr Khoday’s name and treat the land as government-owned. In 2006, Khodays Laxmana filed another writ before the HC, following which the interim order was passed.