Prevent encroachment of govt land near Sankey Tank: Shettar

 Opposition leader Jagadish Shettar on Friday demanded that the government take immediate action to prevent encroachment of seven acres of government land next to Sankey Tank in the City.

Speaking on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address in the Assembly, he said Mantri Developers had signed an agreement with a company called Gulf Oil to construct a commercial complex on the valuable land.

The BDA has already changed the land use from public and semi-public to residential and commercial to enable the developer to construct a commercial complex, he said.

Part of the seven acres is forest land. Though the Forest department has issued notices to the BDA questioning the change of land use rules, the Authority has not bothered to reply.

Recently, the developer has put up a fence around one acre of land in order to facilitate construction. The seven acres is part of Sankey Tank’s catchment area. The tank will die if the land is not saved, he warned.

Senior Congress leader K R Ramesh Kumar said fictitious documents had been created to grab the prime land. The entire seven acres belongs to the Forest department. Permission was given by the then government in 1970s to set up a government pharmaceutical laboratory. Land sharks have manipulated and created fake documents pertaining to the ownership of the land, he added.

BJP MLA from Mal-leswaram, Dr Ashwathnarayana, said the land had more than 1,250 trees and was one of the important
catchment areas of Sankey Tank.

The government should immediately cancel all the orders issued in the past pertaining to the title of the land. Permission to change the land use should also be reverted, he said.

CM’s assurance

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he would take appropriate steps to clear encroachments on Sankey Tank and reclaim the land. “I will go through all the documents. I will soon call a meeting of the officials of the Urban Development and Forest departments for this purpose,” he said.