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Land worth Rs 40 cr to be reclaimed from school today

20 acres of farm land purchased in violation of norms
Last Updated 10 May 2015, 18:19 IST

The Bengaluru Urban district authorities will, on Monday, reclaim 20 acres of agricultural land purchased by Kumaran’s Children Society in violation of norms.

The educational institution had bought the land in Nettigere, Bengaluru South taluk, from agriculturists. The present market value of the land is Rs two crore per acre.
They had violated various sections of Land Reforms Act, 1961.

The rules clearly spell out that not every body can purchase agricultural land, but only agriculturists can. Also, only those whose annual income is below Rs two lakh can buy farm land.

No institution can buy agricultural land. But here, as per the records and information obtained, it is learnt that they do not fulfill any of these parameters and had purchased land by violating Sections 109 and 17(A) and (B) of the Land Reforms Act, L C Nagaraj, Assistant Commissioner (AC), Bengaluru South, told Deccan Herald.

“We were working on this case for more than three years. The file had come to us from the tahsildar’s office, stating the violations. A detailed investigation was conducted. It was confirmed that this was agricultural land. The DC office and the government gave us permission to procure the land. There was no need for any demolition as there was no construction. Orders were issued to book a case against the violators,” he said.

“In the meantime, the institution informed us that they had got the sale deed cancelled and that all transactions were null and void. Following this, the land was to come back to the government. But the institution chose to fight a legal battle. They approached the High Court. A single judge bench upheld the DC’s orders. Following this, Kumaran’s approached the division bench. The division bench too did not entertain the institution and upheld the single judge bench order,” Nagaraj said.

The AC said that they got the formal order copy three days ago.

He said that based on this, they had decided to procure the land back from the institution on Monday. There was no construction there. There was a school functioning at Doddakallasandra, Kanakapura Road, and the facility at Nettigere was to be another wing, Nagaraj said.   

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(Published 10 May 2015, 18:19 IST)

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