How Karnataka govt tried hard to scuttle task force

While the state government constituted the Task Force for Recovery of Public Land and its Protection, the simple tactic that the government officials used to expunge its efforts was—play truant.

Records available with DNA reveal concerted efforts by the government machinery to ensure the panel, headed by retired additional chief secretary V Balasubramanian, failed.
Till April 2011, the panel had called for eight meetings in toto.

Less than three was the average attendance of the government officials, who were also part of the committee. There were 19 members, including the additional chief secretary and commissioners of BDA, BMRDA and BBMP.

For instance, the additional chief secretary, who was the senior-most member of the task force, failed to attend even a single meeting, despite personal invitations from the panel chairman.

The BDA commissioner attended just three meetings, while the BBMP commissioner could make it to only two. Even the commissioner of survey and settlement conveniently stayed away from all the meetings.

“It’s like applying accelerator and brake at a time… the government constitutes a task force to protect public land and at the same time, protects land grabbers. The government transfers honest officials who try to remove encroachments and the officials who collude with the government deliberately bunk task force meetings. How can any panel function when this is the case?” Balasubramanian asked.