Bengaluru: Non-bailable cases should be booked against land grabbers and they should be given stiff punishment, and even the officials who have connived with them and helped them grab land too should be punished said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah here on Wednesday.
Inaugurating the special court at Kandaya Bhavan that has been set up as per the Karnataka Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act of 2011 to try land grabbing and encroachment cases, he said that a report submitted by a joint House committee on encroachments, headed by A.T. Ramaswamy, has stated that 1.22 lakh thousand acres have been encroached in Bengaluru alone.
A five-member committee, headed by the Chief Justice of Karnataka, has been formed to hear and dispose of cases speedily and to punish the guilty at the special court. The court will ensure that only the encroachers are punished and not the innocent, he said.
“Land grabbing has grown into a mafia. Land grabbers will be dealt with an iron fist, be it the builders or reputed people. The Indian Penal Code has several provisions and sections to punish the guilty, but there is lack of implementation. Ever since the Congress came to power, hundreds of acres of encroached land have been recovered,” he said. There are around 34,000 cases of land encroachment. The demand and steep hike in prices of land has led to land encroachments. The land has been encroached by grabbers, while officials have connived with them, he said. In typical Siddaramaiah style, he asked revenue officials present at the venue to confirm his claim. But, none of the officials spoke and he taunted them to speak.
‘Demolition only in Flood prone Areas’
In an apparent bid to protect buildings belonging to “rich and influential”, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T.B. Jayachandra on Wednesday reiterated that the government will carry out demolitions only in areas that get waterlogged during rains.
After a cabinet meeting Mr Jayachandra told reporters, “The state cabinet conceded that the demolition drive can be carried out only in places that get flooded during rains, instead of following any map or survey numbers. There is no need for carrying out demolitions where there is no flooding.”
The Minister evaded a questions related to demolition of malls and houses owned by influential. He contended that though several demands have come forth that the rich and influential too have encroached land, but most of them also possess documents suggesting that their buildings are genuine. “Therefore, the state government will take decision of carrying out demolition on a need basis,” he said. Though Jayachandra tried hard to defend the cabinet decision, he had to walk a tightrope. On one hand he suggested that the demolition would be carried out without mercy, but he also conceded that the state government was not ready to face court cases at this juncture.
