Bangalore Encroached

A motely crew of legislators headed by MLA AT Ramaswamy have discovered that in and around Bangalore, an entire Mysore has been encroached upon by the country's who's who. And thats just the half of it.

How much land are you exactly talking about? According to the 130-page second interim report, a staggering “27,336 acres of land in and around Bangalore have been encroached upon by 33,812 land-grabbers.” There is some discrepancy in the numbers reported in the media, but then the committee itself is only estimating the extants of the grab and 30,000 acres i.e., 121 sq kms is prolly a conservative estimate. The city of Mysore is spread over 128 sq kms. 33,812 people have carved out an entire Mysore illegally in Bangalore.

30,000 acres, is that the end of it? Not by a distance. The investigations are only at half way stage at present, and have only audited sarkari lands so far.

What types of land are they encroaching? Everytype. Urban blocks, tanks, forests, agricultural lands and even graveyards and sewers, belonging to agencies like TMCs, CMCs, BMP, BDA, KHB,Slum Clearance Board, Muzrai, the Wakf Board, Revenue, Forest, Minor Irrigation (tank beds), Health, Animal Husbandry and Transport departments, cooperative housing societies and institutions such as the BU and NIMHANS are known to have been encroached.

So who's doing it? Any names? No names have been taken in the interim report. It is only safe to assume that these 33812 outed grabbers prolly come in all shapes and sizes. Indeed,at various times, names of prominent industrialists, builders, developers, politicians, religious heads, judges, common people not to forget the babus who have either grabbed land for themselves or helped others, have figured in the list. It is safe to expect that the final report will be more revealing and definitely much longer. With 3 columns per page, and 52 rows per column, it will take 217 pages just to list the 33,812 names known so far.

So what are they doing about it? I bet they are going hammers and tongs on these guys? According to AT Ramaswamy, the govt has been half hearted and passive against the big players and has acted only against small players. Whatever land they have reclaimed, they are mostly clearing and, where possible, auctioning it right back to the "land mafia" according to Congress' Roshan Baig,one of the legislators involved in the investigation.

33,812 people have carved out an entire Mysore illegally in Bangalore and so far not one has had to answer?
Yes Sir! The committee itself declares that “The administrative machinery has utterly failed to take action against the land grabbers and their official abettors and promoters.”

Whatever man, any funny stories?
Yes, there are some:

• There is the case of Turahalli forest, where the BDA's Banashankari VI stage layout encroached 40 acres of Forest Department's lands!!
• One developer,encroached 3.5 acres of NIMHANS' land and wants to build apartments, yes apartments, not wards, right there at the NIMHANS complex.
• Another developer created false documents for 15 acres of Byrasandra tank, right in the heart of the city, went to a bank and raised 5 crore rupees loan. Defaulted on the loan. The Debts Recovery Tribunal auctioned the encroached land so that the bank could to recover its money. That the tank had been encroached came to light only later, after the committee's investigations. The value of the 15 acres was estimated to be 200 crores.

I am not amused, you call these funny? All this is way to depressing, how do I unwind?
I cant help you with that, but Khurana saab might be of some help..

Image Credits: Deccan Herald, July 26, 2007.