In yet another case of failure to protect lakes from encroachment, the BBMP has lost the ownership land measuring three acres and 29 guntas next to Miller Tank as officials failed to submit records of ownership. Among the beneficiaries is a company owned by Shanthinagar MLA N A Haris.
The Karnataka High Court’s order which favoured Haris and others came nearly one-and-half months ago and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is yet to get its act together.
Sources in the BBMP said the case dates back to 2011, when the BBMP went to the court seeking to reclaim the encroached land, originally part of the lake bed. The civic body had said that in 1995, eight people bought parcels of land amounting to 3.29 acres from a person who had created fake documents for the land. Nalapad Estates and Projects was one of the buyers.
The BBMP argued that it was ‘B’ karab land that belongs to the government. The court asked the officials to submit all relevant documents to prove its claim and disposed of the case after officials failed to submit them.
“The Estates Department of BBMP did not provide the documents to the Legal Cell despite repeated requests. The entire episode suggests sabotage,” the source said.
When contacted, Legal Cell head Deshpande said BBMP will continue to fight the case. “We are filing an appeal before the regional commissioner and we will approach the Supreme Court, too. We are sure we will win the case.”
He said the high court order also directed the eight respondents not to mortgage or sell the property till the BBMP exhausts the legal remedies. The court had ordered the entry on khatas as per Section 114 of the KMC Act.
BBMP Opposition party leader Padmanabha Reddy attributed the loss to “lack of will”. “BBMP officials did not act on time, resulting in the BBMP losing the case. It is the failure of the (estate department) officials as well as the legal cell.” BBMP commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad said: “I have noticed that the BBMP department failed to submit the documents and instructed all my officials to make the case strong by producing every document in the matter. We will challenge this verdict in the higher court,” he said.
MLA Haris could not be reached for a comment.