As the ongoing dharna by nonagenarian freedom fighter H. S. Doreswamy seeking stern action against encroachment of government land entered the 12th day on Friday, the State government is preparing an action plan to clear its land in Bangalore city of encroachments.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told presspersons here on Friday that a time-bound action plan would soon be ready to recover the encroached government land in Bangalore. While promising to take action against land grabbers irrespective of their affiliation to any political party, he said he would appeal to the veteran freedom fighter to withdraw his protest.
The legislature committee, led by A.T. Ramaswamy, had said that 34,100 acres of government land had been encroached upon. Of this, 14,393 acres had been recovered. The committee had also included 6,792 acres of land, which is pending before the authorities for grant under Bagair Hukum scheme, under the encroached category. But the government wants to segregate this as well as 7,893 acres of land encroached for various public purposes, such as providing playgrounds and parks.
This would mean that only 5,046 acres of land would now have to be cleared of encroachments in Bangalore.
Law Minister T.B. Jayachandra said Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had responded positively to the State’s request to expedite the process of forwarding its Bill, which seeks to set up fast track courts to try encroachers of government land, to the President for his assent.
