The Revenue Department has taken up an inquiry into the alleged illegal grant of land in Kadur and Mudigere taluks of Chikkamagaluru districts. The officers of the Revenue Department are said to have granted land to hundreds of people without verifying the required documents.
The landless people have the opportunity to seek grants of land after filing applications under the relevant forms – 50, 53 and 57 as per the Karnataka Land Revenue Act. A family can have a maximum of four acres and 38 guntas granted. The taluk-level committee, headed by the MLA, grants the land after verifying the documents and claims made by the applicants. However, there are allegations of grant of land to non-eligible beneficiaries in the two taluks. K.N. Ramesh, the previous DC of Chikkamagaluru, had submitted a report to the State government on the irregularities.
Rajender Kumar Kataria, Principal Secretary of the Revenue Department, who is also secretary in-charge of Chikkamagaluru district, during his recent visit to Chikkamagaluru, said that his department would probe the issue case-by-case and take appropriate action. The department has sent 15 tahsildars with the specific purpose of verifying the documents of the land grant. The tahsildars, divided into three teams, will probe the records. Mr. Kataria, during a review meeting in Chikkamagaluru, said there were at least 1,000 instances of land grants in Kadur taluk, which need to be verified.
