Karnataka govt land 'grabbed' by gated community, private pool reclaimed

Rs 3.9 crore worth of land being recovered on city's southern outskirts

District authorities have started reclaiming 3.23 acres of government land worth about Rs 3.9 crore on the city’s outskirts.

The land includes a public road that was blocked by a gated community for the exclusive use of its residents.

Officials led by Anekal Tahsildar Dinesh P are clearing encroachments from a lake, a stormwater drain and kharab land in Attibele, Bommasandra, Sarjapur, Tindlu, Muttanalluru, Halehalli and Marasuru Madiwala, all on the city’s southern outskirts. Kharab land is any open government land that cannot be used for cultivation.

The drive against encroachments has been initiated on the orders of Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner J Manjunath, officials said.

In survey number 28 at Marasuru Madiwala, officials found 24 guntas of government land encroached upon by private builder, Vakeel Developers. While officials succeeded in reclaiming 16 guntas of a public road that had been turned into residential sites, the remaining land could not be recovered due to legal reasons, officials said.

Another 19 guntas in survey numbers 29, 30, 32 were also encroached upon, officials said, citing documents.

In survey number 27, officials said they found large apartment complexes had come upon government land. Before the land could be reclaimed, property owners got a stay order from the court. Interestingly, clearing encroachments from survey number 27 was not part of the action plan which had focused on the adjoining survey number 28. But the removal of encroachments from that survey number was also stopped in line with the court order, officials said.

Dinesh, the tahsildar, said the relevant documents would be presented to the court at the next hearing, due on January 24. “The court’s orders will be obeyed,” he added.

Swimming pool and road

At Hennagara Rajapura near Jjigani, a stormwater drain was cleared of encroachments. A private developer had built a swimming pool on government land while an old cart road of the village had been blocked to build a private residential layout. Both have been removed.

Officials said a security guard at the layout had tried to pass off the swimming pool as an agricultural pond but they removed the gate to clear the encroachment.

Encroachments on two acres in survey Number 67 in Halehalli and two guntas in survey number 93 in Guddahalli were removed to save lake land.

Similarly, three guntas were recovered in Bommasandra, Attibele hobli, and 10 guntas in Tindlu and Chikkadunnasandra, Sarjapur hobli, officials said.

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