Bell tolls for govt land encroachers

47,315 acres recovered in last one year; over one lakh acres encroached in Chikmagalur

The Karnataka Public Lands Corporation (KPLC) has been making steady progress in identifying of encroachments on government land and recovering such land. About 47,315 acres of encroached government revenue lands (lands belonging to the Revenue department) have been recovered over the last one year across the State.

Criminal cases have been filed against 525 people involved in encroachments under Section 192A of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, Special Officer to KPLC G N Nayak said.
The KPLC has so far identified 9.22 lakh acres of encroachment on revenue land alone, and more and more cases are tumbling out each day.

“We expect to identify an additional one lakh acres of encroachments in the coming days. All tahsildars have been directed to furnish survey number-wise details of revenue land available in their jurisdiction. Once all lands are sifted through using the survey numbers, the details of encroachments will be known and no encroacher can escape,” he said.

The KPLC submits a progress report to the government every month. After collecting documents to establish the ownership of an encroached land, the KPLC directs the respective district administration to take up the recovery process. An average of 200 notices are issued every month to the encroachers in a district, he said.

Chikmagalur tops the list

Chikmagalur district tops the list of the highest number of revenue land encroachments with 1,06,249 acres, followed by Hassan with 92,773 acres, Udupi with 97,840 acres, Shimoga with 71,316 acres, Bellary 65,408 acres and Mysore 65,383 acres.

Though the land value is much higher in Bangalore Urban and Bangalore Rural districts, revenue land encroachment is comparatively less in the two districts. As many as 25,994 acres have been encroached on in Bangalore Urban and about 35,342 acres in Bangalore Rural.

This is because a major part of Bangalore Urban district has been converted into municipal area. The KPLC is yet to commence collection of data on encroachment of municipal lands.

Among revenue divisions, Mysore division tops the list in encroachment (4.47 lakh acres), followed by Bangalore (3 lakh), Gulbarga (1.23 lakh) and Belgaum division (49,000).

Interestingly, Uttar Kannada district has least revenue land of 6,892 acres, but nearly 50 per cent of it (3,263 acres) has been encroached upon. The State has a total 63.95 lakh acres of revenue land.

Also, the KPLC has identified 1.66 lakh acres of forest land encroachment. The process of identification of encroachment of lands held by various departments of the government is on. So far, about 17,612 acres of encroachments, covering six departments have been unearthed. They are Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Education, Health and Housing.

Highlights

*  Encroachment of about 9.22 lakh acres of revenue land identified
*  Chikmagalur, Udupi, Shimoga and Hassan top the list of encroachments
*  About 47,315 acres recovered in one year
*  As many as 525 criminal cases slapped against encroachers

Varsity land encroached

Land sharks have not spared universities, encroaching large extent of lands belonging to six universities in the State. The universities include Mysore (14.20 acres), Bangalore (6.04 acres), Kuvempu (20 acres), Gulbarga (20 acres), Women’s University, Bijapur (41 acres) and University of Agriculture Sciences, Bangalore (10 acres). The government has initiated action to retrieve the land.