It suggested that to prevent future land encroachments, the government should initiate long-lasting measures such as criminal prosecution of land grabbers.
BANGALORE: About 30,000 acres of land belonging to different government departments and statutory bodies have been encroached as on this May, according to the findings by the Joint Committee of Legislature on land encroachment in Bangalore City and Urban District.
As many as 33,812 encroachers have grabbed these lands in the wake of "partnership" between them,officials and their supporters, the committee headed by A T Ramaswamy said in its second interim report tabled on the floor of the Karnataka State Assembly on Thursday.
While 21,706 acres of Revenue Department lands fell into the hands o,713 land grabbers, 2,179 acres of area coming under lakes under forest department and 2,878 acres of land belonging to Bangalore Development Authority had also been encroached, the report pointed out.
"The administrative machinery has utterly failed to take any action against land grabbers and their official abettors and promoters," it said.
It suggested that to prevent future land encroachments, the government should initiate long-lasting measures such as criminal prosecution of land grabbers and their abettors, besides conducting an accurate survey of all lands that belonged to government.
Of the long list of erring House Building Cooperative Societies (HBCSs), the most notorious is the Judicial Employees Cooperative Society, it said adding "lofty principles such as rule of law, equality before law, etc., are breached without any compunction by influential and powerful persons."
Instead of being a model for other HBCScs, the Judicial Employees Cooperative HBCS has created "an all India record for being a Mother of Illegalities, unleasing a tsunami of scandals," the report said.
"Judges of High Court and Supreme Court who according to the judgment of the High Court itself, cannot by any stretch of imagination agree to be members of the HBCS, have become members and have secured sites, flouting all norms," it said.
The Society has taken possession of agricultural land violating the provisions of the Land Reforms Act, it said.
The committee said it is well-known that the land value in Bangalore is next only to Mumbai and Delhi,adding with the expansion of the Corporation area from 250 sq km to about 790 sq km, there is no doubt that the land grabbing activities in Bangalore will increase in fold.
"It is necessary to find basic solutions to control this menace," it suggested.
The Committee has recommended the need to set up a reliable investigating and prosecuting authority within the provisions of the Act enacted to check land grabbing and the special courts to try such cases.
The Karnataka Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 2007 passed by the legislature is awaiting President's assent.
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