Law to curb land-grabbing comes into force

The State government has notified the much-awaited Karnataka Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 2011. The Act came into force from Monday.

The anti-land grabbing Bill got Presidential assent recently.

Disclosing this to presspersons here on Tuesday, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs T.B. Jayachandra said the law would help in curbing organised attempts to grab land belonging to Wakf or Hindu religious institutions, charitable endowments, and local authorities or other statutory or non-statutory bodies owned, controlled or managed by the government.

Explaining the provisions of the Act, he said those who violate it would be punished, with imprisonment for a term of not less than one year, which could be extended to three years with a fine up to Rs. 25,000. This Act also had a provision for the recovery of the encroached land or the recovery of its market value, if such land cannot be recovered due to various reasons.

A significant provision of the Act was constitution of special courts to try cases of encroachment of government land, the Minister said. These courts, comprising a chairman and four members, would be set up by the government. The chairman would act as judge. Of the four members, two would be of the rank of district judge and the other two would be of the deputy commissioner rank. The court would have both civil and criminal jurisdiction to complete trials in six months, he said.