JOIN USThe special court to try cases of encroachment of government land has decided to register cases against 4,247 people for encroaching upon 744 lakes in Bengaluru Urban district.
The bench, comprising H N Narayan, Balakrishna and Jayachamaraje Urs, directed the court staff to slap notices on 4,247 people and register cases.
The cases will be registered based on details of the interim report submitted by a legislature committee headed by K B Koliwad and a report submitted by A T Ramaswamy to look into cases of land grabbing.
The special court can sentence encroachers to up to three years in jail if allegations of land grabbing are proved.
Huge encroachment
According to the land survey department, there are 837 lakes in Bengaluru Urban district.
About 4,535 acres of land in 744 water sources have been encroached upon.
The bench felt that it had no hopes of seeing any action being taken by the government departments to clear encroachments, and decided to register cases against the encroachers.