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DNA Exclusive: How Bangalore land grab probe was almost stymied

On Monday evening, Balasubramanian came out with the report, which is now causing ripples in the corridors of power. In a candid interaction with DNA, he presented the alarming political interference and connivance in land grabs all over the state.

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Lack of cooperation from government officials and threats that followed did not stymie V Balasubramanian, chairman of the Task Force for Recovery and Protection of Government Land. Undaunted, he undertook one of the most challenging tasks in the state — exposing the loot of state’s precious resources.

On Monday evening, Balasubramanian came out with the report, which is now causing ripples in the corridors of power.
In a candid interaction with DNA, he presented the alarming political interference and connivance in land grabs all over the state.

“When I submitted the draft, officers were shocked that the report was anti-government. That’s why officers in the state government refused to cooperate in the release of the report. Then, they put hurdles for printing the report as officers refused to print it, citing various reasons. Finally I spent `56,000 from my own pocket to print the final report.  The state even tried to bury the issue by not allowing me to make the report public. But with a strong determination, I decided to make it public and I did it,” added Balasubramanian.

Ex-CM’s son-in-law named

The report has exposed land irregularities involving several top leaders cutting across political lines. It includes a former speaker from Srinivasapura and a former chief minister’s son-in-law. The said chief minister was associated with the IT boom in Bangalore.

Apart from these two, there are other several big names that, Subramanian said, have facilitated the grabbing of huge tracts of government land.

The said former speaker is said to have encroached 60 acres of forest land in the Karnataka-Andhra border in Janagalkunte forest. It is a blatant case of senior forest officers refraining from removing encroachment.

In another instance, encroachment of six acres of Byrasandra tank bed, Bangalore east taluk, by a former chief minister’s son-in-law has also been exposed. “An IT park named Bagmane has been developed on the land,” he said.  The tank covers 12 acres, but influential biggies encroached half of the lake. They have not only encroached tank bed land, but have also pledged the same land has in Indian Overseas Bank for securing loan. There are several such instances in the report.

“Cutting across party lines, many political leaders are involved in land grabbing. But we have not named anyone in our final report, as they own it benami. Many senior officers have colluded with political leaders and that explains the low recovery rate, just 4% of the total encroached land of 12 lakh acres of public land,” said V Balasubramanian.
 

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