Bengaluru: A delegation of the anti-land grab action committee headed by freedom fighter H.S. Doreswamy urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to book officials and original land owners responsible for formation of illegal layouts in Bengaluru.
Along with Mr Doreswamy, former MLA A.T. Ramaswamy and former Speaker Krishna met Mr Siddaramaiah and urged him to take stringent action against officials responsible for giving permission to build residential and commercial complexes on tank beds and gomala land.
After the meeting, Mr. Ramaswamy told reporters, “The Chief Minister called us to discuss the future course of action regarding the ongoing demolition drive. The government has constituted a special court to hear cases of encroachments. The CM sought our suggestions regarding continuation of the demolition drive”.
According to him, the CM assured the delegation that after the Gram Panchayat elections, he will once again call them to discuss the government strategy to remove encroachments.
The delegation urged the CM to book cases against original land owners and officials and also demanded that the government take steps to recover the compensation from land owners which should be distributed among the landless.
Before proceeding with the demolition drive, the government must draw up an action plan to rehabilitate residents who built houses on tank beds, government land and gomala land, the delegation requested the Chief Minister. In a memorandum, the committee demanded criminal proceedings against the Chief Secretary and other officials who failed to act as per the directions of the High Court to remove encroachments on government land. Senior officials have deliberately ignored the reports given by the Legislative Committee headed by A.T. Ramaswamy.
The recent demolition drive by the government ignoring the specific directions given by the court and a large number of innocent citizens have been affected, they said.
No action has been taken against officials who allowed multi storeyed buildings to come on lake beds. The government cannot claim ignorance about this, the concerned officials are responsible for allowing multi storeyed buildings to come up in lake bed, the committee stated.
