Minister for Revenue V. Srinivas Prasad on Saturday said the State government would not go back on its promise to implement the reports submitted by A.T. Ramaswamy and V. Balasubramanian on the encroachment of government land, especially in Bengaluru.
“I am the Revenue Minister and I’m stating that the government will be tough against land encroachers and reclaim government land which has been encroached upon in the State,” the Minister said, in reply to a question on the reported remark by a Minister in the Siddaramaiah government questioning the trustworthiness of the reports.
Addressing presspersons after chairing a meeting with senior officials from his department in districts under Mysuru division here, the Minister said his department had started reclaiming land as per the two reports.
“The government will be tough against persons who have encroached land,” he said.
The Minister said about 13 lakh acres of land had been encroached in the State, out of 62.25 lakh acres of land. Forms 50 and 53 had been submitted for considering 7,45,603 acres as ‘bagair hukum’ lands and the remaining 5,55,256 acres had been identified for clearing encroachments, he added.
Till March 31, 2013, 1,00,555 acres had been reclaimed. After the Congress government came to power in the State, 31,537 acres had been cleared from encroachments between April 1, 2013 and October 31, 2014, he replied.
The Minister said some persons had voluntarily come forward to hand over lands to the government after his department started issuing notices to them for allegedly invading the lands.
Committee set up
He said a legislative committee had also been constituted to look into the issue. In Mysuru district alone, 12,550 acres had been encroached and 595 acres had been reclaimed.
He said work on clearing encroachments in Mysuru city would begin soon.
The Minister, however, did not give a convincing reply when asked why the Deputy Commissioner of Kolar, who had taken a tough stand against land encroachment was transferred recently. “The transfer might have been done for administrative reasons,” he replied. Mr. Prasad said land was being sought in 16 districts, including Mysuru and Chikkamagaluru, for building complexes for the offices of Deputy Commissioners. Office complexes had been built in 14 districts, he said.
