JOIN USIn a relief to Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies Dinesh Gundu Rao, the Bengaluru North assistant commissioner has quashed the report of a tahsildar that accused the minister and his family members of having encroached upon 10 acres and nine guntas land of government land at Navarathna Agrahara in Bengaluru North taluk.
The assistant commissioner, in his report on January 19, has stated that the tahsildar and the assistant director (land records) take up complete survey of the land in question. Any process, as on date, to recover the land in question has also been declared invalid.
A joint legislature committee headed by A T Ramaswamy had stated in its report that Rao and his family members had encroached upon 10.09 acres of public land in survey numbers 3 and 13 in Navarathna Agrahara.
In July 2011, the Bengaluru North tahsildar registered a case under the Land Revenue Act, stating that five acres and nine guntas of government land in survey number 3 and five acres in survey number 13 had been encroached upon.
In the meantime, S R Hiremath, the president of nonprofit Samaj Parivatan Samudaya, filed a complaint with the Lokayukta in 2014, alleging that even three years after the tahsildar submitted the report, the government hadn’t taken any action. The Lokayukta then directed the jurisdictional deputy commissioner to review the tahsildar’s report and submit a factual report. The Lokayukta also directed its own police wing to investigate the case.
Rao challenged the tahsildar’s report before the Bengaluru North assistant commissioner and demanded that it be quashed.
He contended that a special deputy commissioner in 2013 had stated that the land in question neither belonged to the government nor was it gomala land. The minister stressed that it was “private property” and the process to reclaim it was also “illegal”.
The assistant commissioner upheld Rao’s contention and in his order on January 19 quashed the tahsildar’s order.