Eagleton Resort on Mysore road grabs 77 acres, panel orders it to pay Rs 998 crore

Bengaluru: The Eagleton Resort on Mysore road has been asked to cough up Rs 998 crore for 77 acres of government land it has encroached on.

Revenue Minister, Kagodu Thimmappa told reporters on Monday that the Cabinet sub-committee on encroachments had recently written to the resort asking it to pay up immediately for the encroached land. Explaining that former Revenue Secretary, Jamdar had identified 100 acres encroached on by the resort and of this about 23 acres were recovered by the government, he said the remaining 77 acres, which were central to the resort, had not been reclaimed.

After the issue went to court , the resort gave an undertaking, offering to pay for the 77 acres it had occupied illegally. ''We calculated the market pricet and asked the promoters to pay up Rs 998 crore. We have not given them any time. They will have to pay up immediately,” he said.

Moving on, he disclosed that the state government was gearing up to counter the drought next summer, which was expected to be the worst ever. “The trouble is that the Malnad too has received little rain and so has not been able to feed the rivers like it normally does. The situation seems under control in Belagavi and Kalaburgi, but we are assessing how serious it could get by summer as we will have to provide jobs to people and ensure they have drinking water. If fodder shortage arises, we will have to procure it from neighboring states. In the worst case, the situation may have to be dealt with like during the emergency,” he said.

Revealing that the state government had decided to give a second chance to those who were cultivating its land, but had not yet applied for regulation under the ‘bagair hukum' scheme, he said, precautions were being taken to ensure that the scheme was not misused.