Demolition drive: Dist admn reclaims two acres worth Rs four crore

DC unhappy over issuance of khatas by MCC authorities

They also recovered one acre nala space which was encroached upon by some persons since last so many years.

In the morning, the staff of Mysore City Corporation (MCC) and Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) demolished several commercial vehicle repair shops on three acres of land.

While two acres land belonged to government, another one acre was nala land. The drive was held under tight police protection. But there was no resistance from the shopkeepers as they had voluntarily removed all their belongings from their shops thanks to advance notice given by the authorities concerned.

Deputy Commissioner Harsh Gupta said the drive was smooth and those shops had been constructed several years ago by some private persons and collecting rent from them.

The encroachment came to the notice of the district during the recent survey as part of Urban Property Record (UPR) in the city.

It was learnt that the ‘property owner’ had got khata done from the Mysore City
Corporation and taken electricity and water connection.

The tahsildar along with senior officials of the MCC and MUDA assisted in the removal of encroachment.

Gupta said he was expecting unearthing of several government property but encroached upon by vested interests over the years in the ongoing UDR survey.

Once the survey report is ready the district administration would come to know the extent of government land how much land had been encroached upon.

The document would be helpful for the district administration to take up demolition drive in the coming days and reclaimed government property.

DC unhappy

The DC expressed his severe dissatisfaction over the manner in which the khatas are issued by the MCC authorities.

The vested interests apply for khatas by producing some documents and the officials issue the khatas without verifying whether the land is private or government.

This has been one of the reasons for the rampant encroachment of land in the city.

The MCC has to change the existing system of issuing the khatas at least from now onwards to protect the government property.

Gupta said once the UDR is ready, deputy commissioner will head the committee that will issue the khatas in urban areas and RTCs in rural areas.

Then with the help of UDR it was possible to find out the ownership of land and reject if it was for government land.

Until and unless the foolproof system comes into being it was not possible to protect the existing government land in the city, he added.