DH Exclusive | Karnataka govt 'loses' 2 lakh acres of land in one year

The government, in a strange revelation, has indicated that the total extent of public land in Karnataka has shrunk by 1.98 lakh acres in a span of one year.

This has raised serious questions on the government’s efforts to protect government land, even as lakhs of acres worth hundreds of crores remain encroached.

According to data made public by the Karnataka Public Lands Corporation (KPLC), which is responsible for the protection of government land, the extent of government land in Karnataka was 61.88 lakh acres as of March this year as opposed to 63.86 lakh acres as of April last year.

In fact, the extent of government land remained 63.8 lakh since 2017, before the sudden drop this year.

This discrepancy is a result of the “recalibration” of data. In other words, the government has not been able to work out how much land it has.

KPLC managing director Mohammed Mohsin said he had written to all deputy commissioners, regional commissioners, and district-in-charge secretaries to hold monthly reviews. “Once this is done, the figures will be clear,” he said.

According to sources, the variation is because deputy commissioners have given varying data at different points in time. “This readjustment has been taking place for at least six years now. It has to be set right at the village-level. Officials need to be trained on the compilation of data. Moreover, often officials are also under pressure to give data in short duration, resulting in inaccuracies,” a source said.

Meanwhile, data suggests that encroachment of government land continues unabated. In April 2019, the extent of encroached land was 11.77 lakh acres. This has increased to 14.01 lakh acres.

Senior legislator A T Ramaswamy who had headed a panel on encroachments said, “There is no asset registry with the government. It is supposed to conduct an audit of its land at the village-level every year."