The Hindu : Front Page : 4,000 acres of recovered land to be used for welfare of poor

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 20, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

4,000 acres of recovered land to be used for welfare of poor

Special Correspondent

Government agencies to build houses for them on such land

Auction of recovered land to be continued
‘Publish names of those accused of encroaching land’

BANGALORE: Responding, perhaps, to the unprecedented opposition to auction of land in and around Bangalore, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Tuesday announced that 4,000 acres of land recovered from encroachers would be distributed to various agencies, including Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), for construction of houses for the poor.

The Government’s decision to auction land to private developers has drawn flak from major political parties such as Congress, Janata Dal (United) and Communist Party of India (Marxist). In the past two days, the city saw protests against land auction. The Joint Legislature Committee on Encroachment of Government Lands headed by A.T. Ramaswamy has also been opposing the land auction.

The auction would not, however, be stopped. Of the 8,000 acres of recovered land, the Chief Minister said, 4,000 acres would be auctioned at the prevailing market prices. Of them, 350 acres had been auctioned to private developers.

The land auctioned at below market price would be re-auctioned, he clarified.

Addressing presspersons after a meeting with members of the committee, the Chief Minister said that the members’ view was against auction of land to land developers. They suggested that sufficient land be set aside for use of public and allotment of houses and sites to poor families.

“The first priority of the Government is to construct houses to houseless families,” he said.

The members also wanted the names of 282 people, including VIPS, involved in encroachment of government land be made public in the next 15 days.

Some political leaders and land developers had encroached upon tank areas and constructed apartments and developed layouts.

Action would be initiated against those involved in land encroachment, he said.

Promise

The committee had identified encroachment on 18,447 acres of government land in and around Bangalore. Mr. Kumaraswamy promised them that the Government would not interfere in the functioning of the committee.

Twenty-five per cent of the houses and sites developed by the BDA, Karnataka Housing Board and various housing cooperative societies would be set aside to houseless families in Bangalore. Houses would be allotted on lease for 35 years to those families who could not afford to purchase them.

An officials’ team would be constituted to recover encroached land in district and taluk headquarters. The Revenue Department had mooted the idea of forming the team comprising officials, he said.

Even as the Chief Minister announced that 4,000 acres of recovered government land in Bangalore Urban district would be earmarked for public utilities, opposition to land auction continues.

Mr. Ramaswamy said, “Auction should not help real estate dealers, and the Government should resort to auction only if it thinks that land cannot be protected from encroachment.”

A large extent of land could be used for formation of sites, which could be distributed to site aspirants. Government agencies such as BDA and BBMP could form sites using the recovered land and distribute them among site aspirants.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page