Retd IAS officer accused of grabbing forest land

 The Forest department has issued a notice to retired IAS officer I M Vittalamurthy for encroaching on 19.20 acres of forest land at Malasavar village in Belur taluk.

Vittalamurthy owns 23 acres of revenue land in survey number 232, where he has developed a farm. But he also encroached upon 19.20 acres of reserve forest land, adjacent to his land, in survey number 194, and developed it into a farm. The Forest department issued him a notice on December 2, asking him to vacate the land within a week.
Contempt of court

If he failed to do so, he would be violating the High Court order and it would be contempt of court too, the department has warned.

Replying to the notice, Vittalamurthy has submitted some documents through his advocate.
According to Ravindra, Assistant Conservator of Forests, the mini forest land had been declared reserve forest land in 1940 and was not denotified thereafter. Hence it is difficult to consider any documents as authentic. The department will verify the documents and will take suitable action in this regard, he added.