Govt yet to recover land

Govt yet to recover land
Friday August 8 2008 04:42 IST

Y Maheswara Reddy | ENS

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BANGALORE: Recently, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa announced that his government was committed to recover encroached lands without fear or favour. Perhaps, he may be willing to recover the land from encroachers but the question is whether his officials are ready to implement his orders?

Here is a classic example of the officials’ apathy to implement Special Deputy Commissioner’s order to recover an encroached land worth crores of rupees. The land is situated at Chinnappanahalli, Bangalore East Taluk. It is said that the ‘occupant’ Satyanarayana Reddy has been enjoying the rights on the land for 40 years. The land has been rented to SS Enterprises for manufacturing concrete blocks. Hollow and solid blocks are being manufactured for the last eight years. The rent itself is estimated to be around Rs 20,000 per month.

When this reporter enquired SS Enterprises (9341258423) about the rent on the pretext of placing an order for concrete blocks, the reply was:"Supplying concrete blocks is my business and certainly, enquiring about rent is not your business."

The officials stumbled upon the encroachment only after MLC Mallangowda Nadagowda raised the issue on March 21, 2007 in the Legislative Council on the encroachment of three acres and 39 guntas of government land in Survey No. 20 of Chinnappanahalli village. The Special Deputy Commissioner, Bangalore District, has directed the tahsildar, Bangalore East, to submit a report on the encroachment.

Based on the report and after hearing the occupant’s counsel, the DC has passed an order on January 28, 2008, to recover the land. It took more than two months for the special tahsildar Y D Krishna to look into the matter. Result: The occupants approached the court on March 26, 2008 and got a stay against the DC’s order to recover the land.

It is not clear as to why the officials concerned sat on the order for two months. But, it was alleged that the special tahsildar had not evinced interest to recover the land. However, Krishna has refuted the allegations. ‘’There was no delay on my part. I had received the order from the DC office only in March.

There was an enquiry from the DC office on the alleged delay in recovering the land and I have given my explaination," says Krishna. Meanwhile, Venkatesh, tahsildar, Bangalore East, has said that efforts would be made to vacate the stay by producing necessary documents."I have advised the occupant to stop manufacturing concrete blocks in the premises. I will depute my officials to inspect the site," said Venkatesh.