The Samaj Parivarthan Samudaya (SPS), which was hitherto fighting case against illegal mining in Karnataka, has now turned its attention on rampant land grabbing in the State.
The samudaya on Thursday filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition in the Karnataka High Court based on “Greed and Connivance”, a report submitted by V. Balasubrahmanian, Chairman Task Force for Recovery of Public Land and its Protection.
The SPS urged the court to issue a writ of mandamus, setting aside the government order of disbanding the Task Force with effect from July 4, 2011, and to constitute a Specially Empowered Task Force to carry out all the discontinued functions and responsibilities of the task force under the supervision and control of the court.
Addressing presspersons S.R. Hiremath, president SPS said that, SPS had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court.
The case came up for hearing on February 15, 2013. However, two-judge Bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai directed the Karnataka High Court to expeditiously dispose of the petition considering its public importance.
“Following the Supreme Court directive, SPS had modified the petition suitably and filed in it in the High Court,” he disclosed.
The task force, which was set up by the government in September 2009, submitted its report on July 4, 2011 and caused ripples in the corridors of power. The report revealed that 11.07- lakh acres of public land had been encroached upon in the State, which is 10 per cent of all government land. The report also concedes that “this is a grossly under-reported figure”, he said.
