Sensational news was revealed by a committee constituted by the Karnataka assembly which said that lakes and water bodies have been encroached in Bengaluru in both rural and urban areas to an extent of 10, 472 acres worth Rs. 1.5 lakh crores. This was revealed after a physical survey is being done by an 11 member committee of the legislative assembly. The committee was headed by K B Koliwad who found out that there are major land developers encroaching in the lake lands and as per Mr. Koliwad, notices have also been sent to them.
In a statement to the media Mr. Koliwad stated that such a huge land stretch as big as 10, 472 has been encroached by the land developers. He also stated that the department would be sending show cause notices to them. He said the show cause notices would demand the reasons as to why they should not be evicted from the land. He also stated that the reply should come before 30th of January, 2016.
The committee which was duly formed 14 months ago said that the names, details of the land grabbers will be published in the official gazette notification along with the extent of the land grabbed will also be published in the gazette notification.
The committee in its report published that 11, 595 people and government agencies have been alleged to have grabbed land in the tank areas and they have developed commercial and residential buildings, colleges, schools, community halls and others. In the 17 page report of the committee headed by Koliwad it stated that there are several government agencies, departments like BDA, BBMP, Education department, Urban development, Transport Department and forest department have also encroached the tanks.
The committee appointed for the investigation hired 200 surveyors and have checked all the tanks in the two districts. The Tashildars would issue notices to the land grabbers and the Assistant Commissioners would collect the explanations of the land grabbing by the builders and developers and forward it as was said by the Chairman, Mr. Koliwad. This panel so constituted will take four months to submit the full and final report to the government. According to the report the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has allegedly encroached about 481 acres of lands of the tanks and developed various layouts and sites. Among the people who have been distributed the land, Chief Minister Siddharamaiah and Assembly Speaker Mr. Kagodu Thimappa, is also there. Both have been given land in Dollar’s Colony in J P Nagar and both have sold the land to the other parties.
Mr. Koliwad said that the officials who had sanctioned such plans by generating fake documents for the developers to build the projects will have to face criminal cases lodged against them. He also said that if the officials are found to be in nexus with the developers they will be sent to prison and penalties will also be imposed.
After the thorough study of the explanations given by the land grabbers the panel would evolve a plan of regularization or eviction from the properties. But he also stated that the panel so constituted does not have any powers to demolish the buildings.
