The Karnataka High Court on Thursday directed the Revenue Department, which has allotted 25 acres of lake area to various departments, not to allot the sites formed in the remaining 10 acres of Doddakere lake in Kanakapura to anyone until further orders.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice B.V. Nagarathna passed the interim order on the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by agriculturists from Kanakapura, Sampath Kumar and others.
The petitioners have said that the Doddakere was spread in the area of about 35 acres 26 guntas. However, the Revenue Department, which ought to have protected it, was itself instrumental in allotting it to various government departments.
The PIL said 7 acres of the lake area was reserved for government offices, 4 acres for the Judicial Department, 6 for the Horticulture Department, 2 acres for APMC, among others. The petitioners said the remaining 10 acres of the total lake area was now earmarked for sites to those whose properties were acquired to widen a road in Kanakapura town. They pointed out that diversion of lake area for any other purpose is banned by the courts.
