JOIN USThe State government has not yet responded to the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force’s (BMTF) request for a special prosecutor even after one-and-half-years.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Dr R P Sharma, the Additional Director General of Police, BMTF, said that there is need for a special prosecutor since the cases coming up before the BMTF are “special in nature. Sharma pointed out that the BMTF has recently stopped registering non-cognisable cases with regard to private building-plan violations, after the High Court quashed many of these cases. He said these cases were registered after obtaining permission from the magistrate in accordance with Section 155 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPc).
However, on October 10, the BMTF’s jurisdiction was restricted by a High Court order.
He also underlined the acute staff crunch in the BMTF, which has hindered its work. “Against the sanctioned post of 15 Town Planning engineers, we are managing with only three. We do not even have additional commissioner (Revenue). These officers are required to take up cases of government land encroachment,” Sharma said.
Encroachments
He added that they have so far received 24 complaints of lake encroachment of which 15 came from the Lake Development Authority. The rest were from citizens.
About the alleged encroachment of a burial ground in Sampangiramnagar, he said that following a complaint by the local corporator, M Gopi, cases have been registered. Of the four accused in the case, one is the joint commissioner who has obtained anticipatory bail. He said the veracity of the complaint is yet to be investigated.