In a bid to reclaim encroached government land in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts, the State government will set monthly targets for officials to recover the encroached land.
Indicating that encroachment over the years happened due to the complicity of government officials and advocates, Revenue Minister Krishna Byregowda told the Legislative Council on Wednesday (July 12), “Targets for clearing encroachments and evicting encroachers would be given for officials who are tasked with anti-encroachment drives in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts.” He was responding to a question from BJP member Y. Narayanswamy.
The Minister said, “Clearing encroachment will depend on the will of the government. We have already taken steps to clear encroachments. About 8 to 10 cases have been taken up already.”
Recovered land encroached again
He said that many land parcels recovered between 2014 and 2017 have been encroached upon again.
“We will set up procedures and identify government land. We will get necessary orders from assistant commissioners and special deputy commissioners and make RTC entries before removing encroachments.”
Mr. Narayanswamy pointed out that as many as 38,947 acres of government land have been encroached upon in Bengaluru city in as many as 14,660 cases.
“Just about 3,898 acres have been recovered. If one calculates the cost of encroached land at an average of ₹5 crore per acre, the value of encroached land will be around ₹ 1.5 lakh crore. You can utilise the money generated from the recovery to fund the guarantees.” He also said that in most of the cases, the encroachments have taken place in connivance of revenue officials with agents, and complicity of advocates.
In response, the Minister said, “There is no need for the government to utilise the recovered land to fund the guarantees. I have also spoken to the advocate general about the issue of advocates’ involvement, and he has also acknowledged it. We will put in place a system to rectify the problem.”
On the other issue of recovered land being encroached again, he said, “We will consider changing rules to make gram panchayat or the departments responsible to ensure the land do not get encroached again.”
