Panchayat member sold government land to form residential layout

Revenue officials also in the dock for Bangalore East scam

A village panchayat member and her husband are among 23 persons booked by the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) for encroaching upon 26 acres 31 guntas of gomala land (grazing land) in Bangalore East Division. Not only did they encroach upon the land, but they even formed a residential layout and secured power, water and drainage connections.

Officials involved

Shobha, a member of Valepura Gram Panchayat situated in Varthur hobli, is accused of perpetrating the brazen fraud in connivance with her husband, Shamanna, and jurisdictional revenue officials by forging documents to encroach the grazing land on Survey No. 29.

All the 23 have been booked for forgery and cheating under the Karnataka Land Revenue Act.

With the revenue officials in cahoots with the couple, the encroachment would have not have come to light had a resident not filed a petition before the BMTF about the scam. The task force then sought a detailed report from the jurisdictional tahsildar, who confirmed the encroachment and filed a complaint with the BMTF against all the 23 persons.

A detailed probe by Bangalore East tahsildar Shiva Kumar confirmed that the accused even got water, drainage and electricity connections from the BWSSB and Bescom.

Lapses

“This has exposed lapses not only on the part of revenue officials but also BWSSB and Bescom officials, who failed to check the area before sanctioning the connections,” an official said. Both the facilities have been asked to cancel the connections and the Revenue Department asked to clear the encroachments and repossess the land.

The BMTF officials have issued summons to the officials concerned seeking an explanation.