More than 4 lakh acres of government land has been encroached in Mysore revenue division alone and efforts will be made to reclaim them.
A “VIP list” comprising names of politicians and other influential people who have encroached upon government land will be released by February 28 after which a drive will be launched to reclaim the encroached land. The highest encroachment was reported from Chikmagalur district in which 81,000 acres of forest land and 76,000 acres of revenue land was encroached and this was attributed to plantations.
This was disclosed by Chairman of the Government Land Protection Task Force V. Balasubramanian here on Friday.
He said the Task Force was not a committee constituted to investigate and submit reports but to reclaim the encroached land with the assistance of the Revenue Department.
Giving the break-up of the extent of encroachment, Mr. Balasubramanian said nearly 2.5 lakh acres of revenue land in Mysore division had been encroached upon and this was likely to increase because the extent of encroachment in Mandya district was being computed. In Mysore district, 55,000 acres of revenue land was encroached while 2,500 acres of forest land had been encroached.
In Kodagu district, 2,500 acres of forest land had been encroached while in Chamarajanagar 2,500 acres of forest had been encroached. Forest land encroached in Hassan district was reported at 3,000 acres while it was 1,500 acres in Udupi and 1,200 acres in Dakshina Kannada districts.
The extent of revenue land encroached in Udupi was 51,000 acres and in Dakshina Kannada district it was 56,000 acres, according to Mr. Subramanian.
He said the Task Force had been empowered with a legal cell comprising a battery of legal experts who would proceed against the encroachers and prosecute the guilty by implementing Section 192 (a) of the Land Revenue Act and Section 64 (a) of the Forest Act which provides for stringent punishment.
“We will take action against those who have encroached as also officials who have prepared bogus land records and abetted the encroachment,” the Task Force Chairman added.
The Task Force was constituted by the State Government following large-scale encroachment of government land by developers and other vested interest groups in Bangalore district. It transpired that nearly 40,000 acres of land estimated at Rs. 65,000 crore had been encroached in Bangalore and surrounding areas as per a report of the Joint Legislature Committee on Encroachment constituted for the purpose and the Task Force had taken steps to clear the land of encroachment.
Mr. Subramanian said the Task Force was empowered to initiate all legal measures to reclaim the encroached land and prosecute the guilty.
So far, 234 complaints pertaining to government land encroachment had been received by the Task Force after it came into existence and it had issued directives to the respective revenue authorities in different districts to study the issue and take suitable steps to reclaim the land. The office of the Regional Commissioner in Mysore had received 21 complaints pertaining to encroachment so far.
Earlier, the Task Force Chairman held a meeting with the revenue officials from the Mysore Division comprising Mysore, Mandya, Chamarajanagar, Hassan, Kodagu, Chikmagalur, Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts. It will conduct similar meetings in Belgaum and Gulbarga revenue divisions and work to clear encroachment of government lands across the State.
The Task Force had appealed to the public to alert it of any encroachment of government land and inform either the Secretary or the Chairman of the Task Force, 2nd floor, Office of the Deputy Commissioner, near City Civil Court Complex, K.G. Road, Bangalore 560009 or call 080-22114233 or 9845970092 or email: taskforce09@gmail.com.
