‘Go after influential land-grabbers too’

KARNATAKA - BENGALURU - 02/05/2015 : Former Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde, Veteran Freedom fighter Dr H.S.Doreswamy and A T Ramaswamy, hold a large kite with a message - Anti Land Grabbing Campaign, during the rally by members of Anti Land-Grabbing Action Committee, from the Gandhi Statue at Anand Rao Circle, in Bengaluru on May 02, 2015. Photo K Murali Kumar.

Members of nearly 1,000 organisations took to the streets on Saturday demanding action against “big and influential” encroachers of government land.

In a memorandum to the Karnataka Lokayukta, the protesters — who came under the banner of the Anti Land-Grabbing Action Committee — led by the former Karnataka Lokayukta N. Santosh Hedge, freedom fighter H.S. Doreswamy, and activist S.R. Hiremath, said that while encroachment drives had targeted petty holdings, bigger encroachments by politicians and other influential people had been left untouched.

Specifically, they also submitted complaints of 5-acre encroachments at Jaraganahalli abutting a lake, and 14.3 acres at Devarajeevanahalli where encroachments on a burial ground have been suspected.

The protesters who took out a rally from Anand Rao Circle towards the Lokayukta office at M.S. Building were, however, stopped by the police at K.R. Circle. Lokayukta Y. Bhaskar Rao met the protesters at K.R. Circle.