Fresh notices to Darshan, Shamanur hospital over land grab

Get 15 days to explain why they encroached on stormwater drain

The Bengaluru Urban district administration has served notices on Kannada actor Darshan Thoogudeepa, SN Hospital and owners of 69 other properties for encroaching on government land at Ideal Home township in Rajarajeshwari Nagar.

Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner V Shankar said the move followed high court orders. “The high court asked us to give the property owners a chance to provide an explanation. Accordingly, the assistant commissioner served notices on the parties,” he told DH.

Asked whether any deadline was set, he said property owners had 15 days’ time. “They may seek other details and ask for time. But the matter will reach its logical end within a month,” he added.

A report by K Jayaprakash, the joint director of land records, had stated that the actor’s house and the hospital run by former minister Shamanur Shivashankarappa’s family were among the properties that had encroached on stormwater drains. Served with an eviction notice, the actor had moved the court for a stay.

Free housing

This apart, the district administration has prepared a Rs 37.24-crore plan to provide free homes to 784 special-category families. Shankar said the homes would be built on 9.35 acres of land recovered from encroachers in survey number 281 at Gunjur village. “We estimate each home to cost Rs 4.75 lakh, of which Rs 3.5 lakh will come from the Rajiv Gandhi Housing Scheme and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana,” he said.

Sex workers, devadasis, widows, sanitation workers, the destitute and the disabled come under the special category.

The deputy commissioner said four miniparks would be created in Bengaluru on the lines of Cubbon Park and Lalbagh and the work was underway to identify suitable places for them.