Task force formed to check encroachments

Road map to be prepared for utilising recovered government land

The task force is headed by retired IAS officer V Balasubramanian and comprises 16 officials from various departments and authorities. Called ‘Task Force for Protecting Government Land’, it was formed on September 19.

The task force is responsible for surveying all the government lands in Bangalore and all over the State,  providing directions for ensuring that all encroachments are cleared and protecting the land against further encroachment.

The task force comprises the additional chief secretary of the government, principal secretaries of the revenue, urban development, finance, forest, environment and e-governance departments, commissioners of the Bruhut Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, Bangalore Development Authority, Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority, Land Records departments, ADGP (Law and Order) and managing director of the Lake Development Authority.

Retired secretary of the Law Department, M R Hegde is the legal advisor, while Karnataka Public Lands Corporation Limited’s managing director is the member secretary.

The task force will be in charge of implementing the report submitted A T Ramaswamy Joint House Committee Report. It will provide directions to the revenue and other concerned departments to clear the encroachments in Bangalore city and in the district limits.

Apart from this, the task force has also been entrusted with 11 other responsibilities.

Tasks entrusted

Among the other tasks entrusted to the task force are: providing directions about the utilisation of the recovered government lands; reviewing cases filed against land grabbing; filing criminal cases against officials, staff and public involved in land grabbing; directing law and other departments about land grabbing; implementing the Karnataka Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act; preparing a strategy for utilising government lands; and advising the Karnataka Public Lands Corporation Limited.

Notification to districts

Similar to the survey conducted in Bangalore district limits to identify land encroachments, all the other districts have been directed to identify cases of government land grabbing and take appropriate action to clear the encroachments. The process for  the same has already begun.

“A 50-column application form has been sent to district administrations to document the land grabbing cases in the district. Tahsildhars in every district have been notified to submit the filled in applications forms by November end,” informed Additional Deputy Commissioner S N Gangadhariah.

In Kolar district, Gangadhariah said steps had already been taken to identify encroachments on ‘raja kaluves’ even before the notification was issued.The process of clearing those encroachments is now on.