JOIN USThe High Court Chief Justice, D H Waghela, has directed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to crack down on those who have grabbed over five acres of government land, Revenue Minister Srinivas Prasad has said.
Speaking to reporters here on Friday, Prasad said the chief justice had summoned the chief minister to discuss the encroachment issue.
He directed that those who have encroachment upon more than five acres be evicted immediately. But those occupying less than five acres need not be dealt with sternly, the minister said.
The government will not yield to any pressure in this regard and revenue officials have been directed to deal strictly with encroachers, he added.
Prasad said that retired IAS officer V Balasubramanian had even included ‘Bagair Hukum’ land cultivators in the list of encroachers. But it is not possible to consider illegal cultivators and those who have applied for land conversion as encroachers.
The government will have to wait for disposal of such applications. If the committees on bagair hukum reject the applications, then only the cultivators will be evicted, he clarified.
The minister said that Pahanis (Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops) were computerised 14 years ago. At least half of the 1.84 lakh records have bloomers. As many as 5.38 lakh podi cases are pending for attention and 2,673 surveyors have been appointed to look into these records, he added.
The K Narasimhaiah committee’s proposal to convert Lambani Tandas into revenue villages has not been satisfactory. It would be submitted to the legislature and then suggestions from legislators would be taken before a decision is made, he added.
Referring to the chief minister’s “decision” to seek progress report from each minister, Prasad said that it would be better to ask the departments to submit their progress reports.