Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda.
Credit: Minister's office
Bengaluru: Public lands have become so scarce that the government has had to purchase space to build taluk offices, Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda told the Legislative Assembly on Monday.
Gowda was responding to multiple questions by lawmakers M T Krishnappa, K Y Nanjegowda and others on the grant of lands under Bagair Hukum (unauthorised cultivation).
“Among the new taluks that were formed, in 3-4 of them, we have to purchase land to build taluk offices, or Praja Soudhas,” Gowda said. “We have to purchase land to provide burial grounds. We’ve not been able to provide land for 12,000 Anganwadis. We’re having to purchase land for Morarji schools,” he added.
Scarcity of land is such that Gowda said governments will have to think about how land can be provided to schools and playgrounds.
“There are three Supreme Court cases, important among them being Jaspal Singh vs Haryana, which have said that public lands such as Gomala and Devarakadu can’t be granted,” Gowda pointed out.
“Every family is getting divided into three. From where should land be provided for housing, which is a basic right? Between land and housing, what should we prioritise? Where’s the space for housing? How much land can we purchase?” Gowda said.
In the last three years, Gowda said 8.93 lakh applications have been received seeking regularisation of illegal cultivation on government land. Of them, 6.49 lakh have been rejected.
Gowda said rejections are high due to discrepancies in applications.
“The law says applicants must have been doing cultivation before 2005. But 42,289 applicants were under 18 years of age, some were only 2-3 years and some weren’t even born. There are 7,564 applicants who already have 5 acres of land, 33,632 who’ve encroached roads, 1 lakh of them claiming forest land and so on,” Gowda explained.