The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Time limit to be fixed for land acquisition process

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 03, 2007
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Time limit to be fixed for land acquisition process

Karnataka Bureau

KIADB Act to be amended to fix three-year limit

Notification for acquisition will lapse if time limit is exceeded
Note on amendment being prepared for Cabinet consideration

BANGALORE: The Government plans to amend the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) Act to prescribe a three-year limit for the completion of the process of land acquisition. This will ensure that farmers do not have to wait for a long time to get compensation for their land.

Replying to a discussion in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday on the alleged irregularities in the acquisition of land by the KIADB, Industries Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu said the amendment would stipulate that the notification for land acquisition would lapse if the process was not completed within three years.

Note for Cabinet

The Government had asked the Principal Secretary to the Industries and Commerce Department to prepare a note in this regard. The note would be discussed and approved by the State Cabinet, he said.

Earlier, several Opposition members, including J.C. Madhuswamy (JD-U), G.V. Sriram Reddy (CPI-M), Jayaprakash Hegde (independent) and R. Roshan Baig (Congress) charged that the KIADB, the nodal government agency for acquiring land for various projects, had committed irregularities by issuing preliminary notifications for land acquisition and later denotifying the land.

Mr. Madhuswamy urged the Government to constitute a House committee to inquire into all land acquisitions made by the KIADB while Mr. Reddy sought an inquiry by a judicial commission. Mr. Baig demanded a CBI inquiry and suggested that a separate inquiry should be conducted on the relevant orders issued by the Principal Secretaries to the Public Works Department in the past 15 years to find out if they had supported such irregularities.

Speaker Krishna said that it was a serious matter and asked the Minister to order an inquiry by a judicial commission or a House committee after consulting the Chief Minister.

Mr. Naidu said he would decide the next course of action based on the outcome of a departmental inquiry, which was being conducted into the allegations. He would also consult the Chief Minister in this regard.

Mr. Madhuswamy said there were instances in which the KIADB had issued preliminary notifications for acquiring land, but had not issued the final notification to mark the completion of the acquisition process even after nine years. Once land was notified for acquisition, farmers were barred from selling their land. But they would not get compensation till the final notification was issued. In some cases, notified land had been denotified later. The KIADB was issuing no-objection certificates to farmers to enable transfer of land to real estate developers, he said.

Diverted

Large tracts of lands acquired in and around Bangalore by the KIADB for industrial purposes had been used for other purposes such as construction of colleges and residential complexes.

On the controversial Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project, he said the Government still had not fixed the road alignment.

When the former Industries Minister R.V. Deshpande (Congress) rose to speak, the Speaker remarked, “You are part of this episode if the allegations (levelled by the Opposition) are true. Why do you want to speak?”

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

Karnataka