HC offers no respite to residents of Vijayasripura

There seems to be no end to the woes of the residents of Vijayasripura in the city as the Karnataka High Court has dismissed their petition seeking to quash an earlier court order to demolish their houses.

The aggrieved party, whose lands were acquired by the government agency, has agreed to withdraw his petition in the interest of the residents. However, the court order is binding on the officials to demolish the houses as they have failed to formalise the agreement entered with the aggrieved party.

Now, the members of the layout have decided to file an appeal before the Supreme Court to save their houses. Meanwhile, MLA L Nagendra met the representatives of the area and assured of resolving their issue amicably. He said he would lead a delegation of the residents to meet Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy to appeal for a solution.

The erstwhile City Improvement Trust Board (CITB), now Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA), had acquired 94.28 acres of land on Survey No 1, abutting Manasagangothri, the postgraduate campus of the University of Mysore, in the year 1984-85. The acquisition extended up to 1988.

The land was owned by the late K B Ramachandra Raje Urs, first son-in-law of Jayachamaraja Wadiyar. Ramachandra Raje Urs was also the grandson of Dewan M Kantharaja Urs.

The property was later inherited by his son Chaduranga Kantharaj Urs and daughters Tripurasundari Devi, Deepamalini Devi and Keerthimalini Devi. Chaduranga Kantharaj Urs and his family members questioned the acquisition before the court as MUDA failed to pay the compensation amount.

Meanwhile, MUDA had allotted 15 acres of land to JSS Mahavidyapeeta. Of the remaining 79.28 acres of land, 23.5 acres was developed as Vijayashreepura Layout. On records, there are 184 concrete houses, 80 houses with asbestos sheets, eight houses with Mangaluru tiles, two temples, and 65 vacant sites in the said layout.

Following the petition of Chaduranga Kantharaj Urs, the Supreme Court, on December 16, 2015, ruled against the acquisition of the land by MUDA and set a deadline of six months to handover the land to the legal heirs. Following an appeal by MUDA in June 2016, stating that it needed more time, the court extended the deadline by three more months.

It said, if MUDA did not demolish the houses by September 15, 2016, it would be violation of court order.

However, last year, following the mediation of then chief minister Siddaramaiah, Chaduranga Kantharaja Urs had agreed to withdraw his petition and accept the compensation paid by MUDA. But, so far MUDA had not paid any compensation to the members of the Urs family.

In the meantime, the residents had petitioned the High Court and it dismissed their petition on Thursday.