BANGALORE: It was a grilling time for officials of the Forest, Revenue and Mines and Geology Departments on Tuesday, as the Joint Legislature Committee on encroachments, headed by A.T. Ramaswamy, took stock of the progress since its last meeting, on Bannerghatta National Park, mining around Thippagondanahalli reservoir and the knotty problem of 1.1 acre of land next to Sankey Tank that is creating problems for the Forest Department.

On learning that the Bannerghatta National Park land was under the control of the Forest Department, Mr. Ramaswamy, and members Vatal Nagaraj, V.S. Ugrappa and former Minister Roshan Baig, pointed out that the Department was passing the buck in saying that 213 acres under encroachment had been "irregularly granted" by the Revenue Department.

Areas inspected

The committee had a fortnight ago, inspected the National Park, Anekal, and neighbouring areas and had found that nearly 750 acres of the Park had been encroached upon.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests A.K. Verma said notices had been issued in 542 cases of encroachment two years ago, and were in various stages of resolution. Summary eviction of the encroachers had been ordered in several cases.

Mr. Ramaswamy said encroachment using fabricated documents was very disturbing, and so was the vanishing green belt. It was also not clear how forestland was being acquired by the KIADB (Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board) in violation of wildlife protection laws, he said.

The Mines and Geology Department told the committee that mining leases for sand and stone around Thippagondanahalli reservoir were not being renewed by the department. Mining activity had been banned in the vicinity of the 1,459 sq km area around the reservoir.

Committee members however ended up patting the Forest Department after it was explained that its proactive measures had ensured that the 1.1 acre which was transferred to a private pharmaceutical company in 1974 by the former Maharaja of Mysore under certain conditions, had been restrained by the High Court from proceeding with any construction, as it was illegal, and in violation of its contractual obligations.

The 20-member Joint Select Committee on encroachment of government lands in and around Bangalore took officials in the civic agencies in Bangalore North Taluk to task for not going the extra mile in protecting the assets of the State and being lackadaisical in dealing with cases of land-grabbing. Members of the committee were irked that many of the officials had come ill-prepared to answer the questions of the members and did not have facts and figures with them.

Deputy Commissioner of Bangalore Urban district M.A. Sadiq told the committee that there were 692 apartment projects in these areas, of which 175 had not obtained licence.

When Mr. Ramaswamy and Mr. Ugrappa began questioning the officials of the CMCs, they found that they had not been proactive in taking action against those engaged in unauthorised construction activity. Work had been commenced by the builders merely on the basis of building plan approval by the Bangalore Development Authority. Mr. Ugrappa said it was shocking that of the 192-apartment projects in Krishnarajapuram city municipal council area, only two were legal.

"What is the CMC doing? Are you sleeping?" he asked.In Yelahanka, 830 acres out of 3,340 acres under Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, BDA and the CMC have been encroached upon, as per the BMP survey.

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