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Good News:Karnataka Land Sharks will soon be booked

233134 — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:21:00 GMT

[photo:listing:1955071:1]Here is a good news to all those poor farmers and NRI Investors: Land grabbers, many of whom went scotfree all this while, may now end up behind bars for laying their hands on prime government land.The jinxed A T Ramaswamy committee report on encroachments will come to life again.

An exclusive Act to deal with land grabbing and establish a special court to prosecute violators is on the anvil. The Karnataka Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Bill 2007, that's awaiting the President's nod, is expected to get through by October.

What's more, a task force has been set up to prevent encroachments. The body headed by retired IAS officer V Balasubramanian was approved by a government order on September 19. The entire state will fall under its jurisdiction.

To begin with, the task force will commission a survey of government lands in Karnataka, barring Bangalore. For Bangalore Urban, the data collected by the former joint legislature committee on encroachments, headed by Ramaswamy, will be used.

"We had the first meeting today (Tuesday) and I will write to all the deputy commissioners of districts to send me a report on the status of government lands. Since Bangalore data is available, action will be taken against land grabbers. With the formation of a special court to look into such cases, the punishment will be stringent," Balasubramanian said.

SPEEDY TRIAL

One of the landmark provisions of the Bill is the setting up of a special fast-track court to try cases of government land encroachment. With a deadline of six months to dispose of a case, the court will be headed by a retired high court or Supreme Court judge. All criminal and civil cases relating to government land encroachments pending in other courts will be transferred to the special court. The accused can be sent o jail for a period of three years.
Source:Times of India

Tehelka Reports the Condition of North Indian workers in Bangalore Realty

233134 — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:50:00 GMT

North Indians are under attack in Mumbai, but in Bangalore they are the lifeblood of the construction industry. SANJANA from Tehelka visits the camps they are stuffed in

There is nothing to look forward to at home even though I own two acres of land. No rain means no work. My daughter had to be married off. My parents are old and sick.
Ganesh Ram, Begusarai, Bihar

I work all the time here. Some Sundays, I just want to sleep and forget about the work, the dust... If I could escape, I would. But where is the money?
Abhilash Toto, Rajganj, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal

AMID THE construction din that has engulfed Bangalore, desperate voices such as these are drowned out. The city’s property and infrastructure development is in the midst of a very visible boom. Flyovers, IT parks, residential and commercial projects are coming up in a frenzy. Some real estate industry watchers peg the current investment in Bangalore at Rs 12,000 crore with over 1.5 lakh apartments under construction. Others say this is a conservative estimate.

India is currently looking at creating local Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). REITs are like mutual funds and, if approved by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), will translate into skyrocketing foreign investments into real estate development. Bangalore is expected to account for at least 30 percent of the $50 billion dollar plus foreign investment that is awaiting a nod from SEBI.

This high “investor confidence” and boom in construction industries in Bangalore and other cities in Karnataka is being sustained by almost 15 lakh migrant workers from places as far as UP, Bihar, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Construction companies no longer turn to workers from Karnataka; they specifically ask contractors to employ labourers from these states because they work “harder”.

Escaping from poverty and disease at home, these workers are sucked into a labour economy that is characterised by exploitative labour practices, unsafe working environments, inhuman living conditions with little access to basic amenities and almost complete social exclusion. Their story is a parable for other migrant workers across the country...........................
Read More here http://www.tehelka.com/story_main37.asp?filename=cr010308grist_for.asp

30,000 acres of land encroached upon in Bangalore Urban district !!!

233134 — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 13:32:00 GMT

BANGALORE: The Joint Committee of Legislature on Land Encroachment in Bangalore City/Urban District headed by A.T. Ramaswamy on Thursday tabled its second interim report, which runs to 130 pages, in the Legislative Assembly detecting encroachment of about 30,000 acres of land belonging to different departments and statutory bodies in the district.

The Joint Legislature Committee on encroachments in Bangalore Urban district, in its interim report (part two), has recommended “certain basic and long lasting” measures, including criminal prosecution of land grabbers, persons who abet such activities and the officials concerned who connived with them, for preventing encroachments in future.

The report was tabled in the Legislative Council on Thursday by the committee member “Mukhyamantri” Chandru, and by its chairman A.T. Ramaswamy in the Legislative Assembly.

It has recommended prosecution of offenders under the existing provisions of the IPC, the recently amended Land Revenue Act, and the “Goonda Act”.

There were some reported instances of “daylight murders” of people related to real estate business in Bangalore city in March 2007.

In the light of the expansion of the area of BBMP from 250 sq km to 790 sq km encompassing seven city municipal councils and a town municipal council, the land grabbing activities were bound to increase manifold.

Therefore, it was necessary to find “basic solutions” to regulate “this menace” effectively, the committee said.

Referring to its first interim report, the committee said: “The administrative machinery has utterly failed to take action against the land grabbers and their official abettors and promoters.”

It has made recommendations in respect of some of the “glaring cases of land grabbing” such as the encroachment of 180 acres in B.M. Kaval village in Bangalore south taluk by a leading business family; 11.5 acres of tank bed in Pattandur Agrahara in Bangalore East taluk by creating bogus records; 1,099 acres of forest, 313 acres of tank bed, 767 acres in Bannerraghatta National Park; lands belonging to Dharamrayaswamy and other temples; valuable property in Chamarajapet donated to Endowment Department through a will but handed over to land grabbers by the BBMP officials; illegal possession of public roads by Purvankara Builders in connivance with the BBMP and Registration Department officials; and the activities of societies such as the Judicial Employees Housing Cooperative Society and Shanthinagara House Building Cooperative Society.

Biggest loser.

Mr. Ramaswamy said the Revenue Department was a major victim of encroachment and 25,713 people encroached 21,706 acres.

The second was the Bangalore Development Authority. Nearly 2,878 acres of valuable land in and around Bangalore was encroached by 4,595 people. The Forest Department was the third biggest to lose land — 2,179 acres to 2,231 people. The value of the land encroached has not been provided in the report.

The other departments, whose lands were encroached were (acres and encroachers respectively are given in brackets): Wakfs Board: (263 and 97), Cooperation Department: (86 and two), Animal Husbandry Department: (48 and 248), Endowment Department: (61 and 199), Karnataka Housing Board: (34 and 302), Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board: (32 and 601), Karnataka Slum Clearance Board: (12 and 202), town municipal councils and city municipal councils: (eight and not available), Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike: (13 and 124), National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences: (three and one) and Bangalore University: (13 and 50).

Besides these encroachments, the committee had detected government lands of various categories which were encroached upon such as those resumed under the Inam Abolition Act, the Urban Ceiling Regulation Act and Sections 79A and 79B of the Land Reforms Act.

This accounted for 12,012 acres.

The report said that the committee would prepare department-wise reports showing names, addresses and extent of encroachment by them.

Source: The Hindu

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4 BBMP's 'Grade Separator' Projects Cleared in Bangalore

233134 — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 10:59:00 GMT

BANGALORE: Four BBMP projects worth Rs 116 crore have been approved by the Ministry of Urban Development on Friday. The projects are sanctioned under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

The projects are the grade separators at Yeshwantpur, Gali Anjaneya Swamy Temple - Mysore Road, underpass at Nagawara road junction and at Hennur-Banaswadi-Ring Road junction.

With this, the number of BBMP projects approved is now 15, with total outlay of Rs 976 crore. Four more projects are likely to be cleared soon.

Rs 4 crore worth of property recovered: BDA has recovered encroached property worth Rs 4 crore in BTM 6th Stage on Saturday.

Officials said a shed and a compound wall, built on BDA land by some persons, had been demolished in survey number 46/2 and 46/3 of Arkere village in BTM Layout. The land measured 12 guntas.

Land recovered: BBMP recovered encroached land measuring 50-20 ft in ward 64 in Vinayaknagar on Saturday. They demolished four shops illegally built around Ganapathy temple. BBMP has not fenced the land.

Source-Times of India 22nd July, 2007

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"BMRDA master plan prepared unscientifically!!"

475368 — Fri, 25 May 2007 14:59:00 GMT

Association seeks 45 days more time to file objections to the plan

BANGALORE: Land developers have alleged that Interim Master Plans prepared by the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) have at least "50 per cent irregularities" and have called for an enquiry.

Stating this at a press conference on Wednesday, Dayananda Reddy, President of Karnataka Land Developers Association (KLDA), said the plans had been conceived in an "unscientific manner".

The BMRDA recently released the master plans for the local authorities of Magadi, Kanakapura, Hoskote, Nelamangala and Anekal, comprising 2,600 sq. km. and 1,100 villages with a population of around eight lakh. The authority had called for objections, the last date for which is May 18.

Citing examples of irregularities, Mr. Reddy said that the 200 acres of land previously allocated as residential layouts at Nerlur in Anekal taluk had now been converted to agricultural zones. "We would have created 5,000 sites with permission from the BMRDA itself. What is the purpose of such conversion?" he asked.

The proposed road and rail network had been framed in an unscientific manner as they passed through villages, he said and added, "When there is so much vacant land available in the surrounding areas, why must roads pass through people's houses?"

In Hoskote taluk, large areas of wetlands had been earmarked as residential areas when they would actually be suitable for agricultural development. "If the Dodda Amani Kere overflows, houses located on the wetlands are likely to get flooded," R.V. Someswaran, general secretary of KLDA, said.

The KLDA gave examples of duplication of survey numbers and non-allocation of buffer zones between residential and industrial areas in the master plan for the Anekal local planning authority.

It may be recalled that in the areas earmarked for development, the master plans allowed 34 per cent of the land to be utilised for housing, 30 per cent for industries, 16 per cent for parks and open spaces, 11 per cent for transport, and 4.5 per cent each for public utilities and commercial spaces.

Stating that the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act allowed 60 days for objections to be filed, Mr. Someswaran asked the BMRDA for extension of another 45 days to file objections. He asked for representation on the committee that the BMRDA had proposed to set up to examine the objections.

BMRDA stand :

BMRDA Commissioner Sudhir Krishna said the Government Order had stated that the time to file objections was 15 days and that the law did not allow for representation of individuals on the committee.

As for the allegations made by land developers, Mr. Krishna said the objections would be addressed only after the committee examined them.

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