Encroachment clearance in no man’s land as private interests lord over public lands

Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda made startling revelations in the Belagavi legislature session that the state has a shortage of public land for public amenities.

The government is in possession of an estimated 63.32 lakh acres, of which 14.72 lakh acres are encroached upon. 

Of this, 10.54 lakh acres fall under Akrama-Sakrama scheme (under which regularization of cultivation land is sought) and 17,686 acres have been used for public purposes. 

Cases pertaining to encroachment of 11,031 acres are pending in courts. The government had to free up 3.89 lakh acres from encroachment. Of this, 2.73 lakh acres have already been freed. There are 5,507 cases pending in the Karnataka Land Grabbing Prohibition Special Courts.

Expressing concern, the minister said land had been indiscriminately granted over the years and the only hope is to look at safeguarding available land.

“Now, we cannot think of parting with government land for any purpose other than creating public amenities. The time has come for the government to stop giving land grants. Even if the state does so, it must be by following strict regulations,” he said.

The minister said the government was taking stringent measures against officials hand in glove with encroachers and started filing FIR against them.

According to data accessed by DH, in Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural districts combined, 51,555.31 acres of land is encroached in 23,307 cases. Of this, the government has disposed of 12,434 cases, recovering 28,264.18 acres.

The minister said the government plans to operationalise the Beat App system in January, besides continuing encroachment clearance drive. 

“Digitisation of land records, drone survey of properties and indexing of revenue records will be the primary focus of the department to protect government land,” he said.

Activists and bureaucrats feel measures by successive governments against land encroachment were far from satisfactory. 

They say the minister’s apprehensions about “shortage of government land” is far from truth.

V Balasubramanian, former chairperson of the Task force for Recovery of Public Lands  told DH that successive governments had failed miserably in clearing encroachments.

“Even if some land is cleared, it is from poor and non-influential people. The biggest chunk of land is encroached by big land sharks whose names find mention in various government records. The existing rules, framed during British-era, are enough to clear encroachments and recover cost from encroachers. These encroachments have taken place with the tri-nexus of politicians, bureaucrats and land sharks. If government is sincere in its approach, it should give clearance to prosecute officers who are hand in glove with land sharks,” he said.

He said land encroachment in Karnataka is at a different level compared to other metro cities – Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi.

“In these cities, encroachment has not taken place in the central part or core areas, but in Bengaluru, encroachment has taken place in every possible place,” he said.  

Kumar Samatala, secretary of Karnataka Bhoomi-Vasati Hakku Vanchitra Horata Samiti, told DH that there was no dearth of land to provide public amenities, housing or cultivation purposes. 

“The minister seems to be carried away by the statement provided by bureaucrats. In 1978, the revenue and forest departments entered into an agreement to plant saplings on around 15 lakh acres of kharab land. The revenue department is the real owner of this land and it has allowed forest department to claim rights. This is actually leading to multiple problems, with forest department claiming rights over revenue land,” he said. 

The committee plans to meet Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Krishna Brye Gowda to appeal to them to relook into demands of landless and houseless people.

T Yeshvantha, general secretary of Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha, told DH that the Congress rode to power in 2023, after stating in the manifesto that they would clear all pending Bagair Hukum land cases.

“Now, the revenue and forest departments have been functioning contrary to the assurances. We held a protest last month to highlight that several farmers were evicted from lands they have been cultivating for ages. The CM assured that he will give an appointment to discuss these issues, but he is yet to do so,” he said.