Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar has formed a task force to investigate the city’s land records to settle competing claims of ownership by the State government and defence department. At a recent meeting on the handing over of 14 acres of defence land for road widening projects, the department claimed that the State government had possession of 75 acres of other defence land in 17 locations across Bengaluru.
The task force is expected to bring more clarity on land ownership in the city, said a senior revenue official.
The defence department has claimed that M. Chinnaswamy stadium (18 acres), the Karnataka Police wireless headquarters (12 acres), Mayabazar (one acre), the Karnataka State Reserve Police campus (20 acres), a BBMP complex in Kadirenapalya (four acres) and six slum pockets across the city have come up by encroaching defence land. Any proposal to provide alternative land of equivalent value to the defence department will cost the State government thousands of crores of rupees.
Mr. Vijay Bhaskar said that Chinnaswamy stadium was built in 1969 and documents showed that it is owned by the State government. A similar case can be made for other plots of land.
“The defence department has not put forward documents to support its claims. The task force will investigate land records and try to settle these competing claims,” he said.
This problem of competing ownership claims is not limited to the 75 acres, but also includes several other parcels of land in Yelahanka, Jalahalli and Kadugodi. In 2016, the defence department had claimed that Bangalore Club was also built on land it once owned.
A colonial legacy
“The confusion has its roots in our Colonial legacy, World War II and confusion during the settlement of land records after Independence,” says K. Ramesh, a senior advisor with SecureProp, a property consultant firm.
During the British rule, the War Department had taken several parcels of land as tenants or on lease during World War II to set up camps for soldiers. The department was shut down after the war. There have been very few legal documents on tenancy of these lands and most of them were transferred to the government of Mysore State from the royal kingdom.
However, the defence department which inherited holdings from its colonial predecessor has documents showing the army in possession of these properties, triggering confusion, said Mr. Ramesh. “Both the army and the State government are right in their position. There needs to be a case by case analysis of whether the land was owned by the British army or held on tenancy,” he added.
