The task force appointed by the Karnataka government to recover the encroached government lands in the state has so far recovered about 35,000 acres of land valued over Rs 65,000 crore in Bangalore alone.
Revealing this here today, task force president V Balasubramanyam said that in all about 400,000 acres of public land belonging to the government, local bodies, forest, Muzrai and other departments had been encroached upon in the state.
Nearly 100,000 acres have been occupied unauthorisedly in the seven districts of Mysore division, the highest being in Chikmagalur district with 81,000 acres. Government lands encroached upon in other districts are: Mysore 2,500 acres, Hassan 3,000 acres, Udupi and Dakshina Kannada 1,500 acres each, Chamarajanagar 2,500 acres and Kodagu district 6,000 acres.
The district heads concerned have been directed to furnish details relating to such unauthorised encroachments of government lands in all 30 districts of the state by February-end, he said.
If encroachment of government lands are proved, the encroachers are punishable with up to seven years in jail under the law. Those who create false records are also punishable stringently, Balasubramanyam warned.
The 15-member task force is set up by the Karnataka government to trace and take possession all government encroached lands in Bangalore and other districts of the state. It takes steps to clear all encroached public lands belonging to the government and other bodies. The assessment of such illegal occupation in Bangalore City and Bangalore City District has been made by a joint committee of the state legislature which went into the issue recently.
The task force is also responsible for finding out such encroachments in other districts of the state and initiate steps to regain them. It is also entrusted with the task of initiating steps relating to cases arising from such encroachments, take legal steps against those officials and employees involved in such deals, and also take steps to regain the encroached lands.
So far, the task force chief said, it had so far received 84 complaints relating to encroachments of government lands. The district heads concerned had been asked to investigate into complaints and submit a report. Twenty-one such complaints were received in Mysore division. The general public can also inform of such illegal occupation to the task force, he added.