Rehab package for forest land encroachers in the offing

 The State Cabinet on Saturday decided to work out a package to rehabilitate those who have encroached upon less than three acres of forest land.

Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Law Minister T B Jayachandra said the Revenue department had been entrusted with the task of working out the modalities of the package.

He said as per the survey conducted by the government, there were a total of 1.10 lakh forest land encroachment cases involving 2.04 lakh acres. Of these, there are 86,352 cases wherein less than three acres of forest land had been encroached upon. Most of these families were smalltime farmers and the total forest land encroached upon was 1.1 lakh acres.

The State government had no option but to evict and recover all the encroached land, but on humanitarian grounds, would rehabilitate families who have encroached on less than three acres. There would be no concession or rehabilitation for families who have encroached upon more than three acres.

Jayachandra said there were 133 cases wherein more than 30 acres of forest land been encroached; between 10-30 acres – 718 cases and between 3-10 – as many 23,423 cases. Jayachandra said the State government would recommend to the Centre to denotify land classified as forest in cases where jurisdictional authorities had adjudicated the impugned land as “non-forest”.

The Cabinet also decided to exempt around 200 industries from the compulsory clause of allotment of land for a period of 99 years through the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board. The process of allotment of industrial land for 10 year lease-cum-sale basis as followed prior to August 2014 will be applicable for these industries. The government will recover the land allotted if the entrepreneur fails to set up industries within two years, Jayachandra said.