HDK accuses Deshpande of encroaching upon forest land

JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Monday said 177 acres of “forest land” in Jakkur Allalasandra in the Bengaluru North sub-division worth hundreds of crores was being encroached upon by persons who he suspected to be Major and Medium Industries Minister R V Desphande and prominent builders.

Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, Kumaraswamy said 177 acre 48 gunta of land in Jakkur Allalasandra was “reserved forest”  as per provisions of the Karnataka Forest Act, 1963. The Assistant Range Forest Officer (Bengaluru North sub-division) had clarified the same in his letter to the Assistant Commissioner (Bengaluru North).
The ARFO has also stated that the revenue department take steps to classify the said land as reserved forest in RTC and mutations.

Kumaraswamy said the land had been claimed by 50 persons including “Radha and R V Desphande”, whom the former chief minister suspected was the present Major and Medium Industries Minister. He also accused prominent builders including Sobha, Mantri and Century developers of encroaching land.

A total of  50 “claimants” on July 15 had been served notices by the Assistant Commissioner, Bengaluru North to prove that  they were the title holders of the land with relevant documents.

“Hand-in-glove”
Kumaraswamy released copies of official communications including one by Chief Conservator of Forests (Regional) Bengaluru to Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Head of Forest Force) on August 1 stating that the Range Forest Officer, Yelahanka was hand-in-glove with the “encroachers” to grab the said land. The officer had failed to turn up at the site inspection taken up by the Forest department. Already houses, apartments and other structures had come up on the land in question.

The CCF has also stated that a special task force should be constituted to recover the “encroached” land. The officer has stated in his communication that the land in question was worth Rs 2,000 crore.

Kumaraswamy went a step further stating that the Stamps and Registration department had fixed the guidance value in Allalasandra at Rs 22,000 per square feet and hence the total worth of the 177 acre of land stood at Rs 14,000 crore.

Besides Deshpande, some of the others who have been served notices include Shobha Inner Technophone represented by Meera Raghavan, Jakkur Aerodrome, Karnataka State Judicial Employees’ House Building Co-operative Society, Shobha Inner City Technopolis, H R Suresh, Raj Gopal, S Veeranna, M N Mahadevaiah.