Bangalore Urban District DC M A Sadiq told reporters on Monday that the regularisation exercise was in compliance with Section 94C of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act.

The regularisation covers government land encroached by economically backward people, who had made applications for the regularisation before April 14, 1998. The department received a total of 37,849 applications, of which 17,211 have been cleared, Sadiq said. The rest of the applicants could not be considered because they had encroached reserved land, including tanks and gomal lands. The DC said the State government had to evolve a policy to rehabilitate the discarded applicants. As part of the regularisation drive, the Department will also ensure immediate registration of the land, Sadiq said. Encroachment of government land that measures less than 20x30 (CMC areas) and 30x40 (other areas) will be regularised without collecting penalty from the encroachers.

The land titles will be distributed at Palace Grounds, in the presence of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, DyCM B S Yediyurappa and Revenue Minister Jagadish Shettar.