Udupi: Locals oppose tahsildar's move to demolish illegal houses

Inchara Udupi
Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (VM)

Udupi, Mar 15: Locals on Thursday March 14 expressed their opposition to tahsildar who had come to demolish the houses which were allegedly built without legal permission near Sunni Jamia Masjid in Mudarangadi.

Based on a complaint about illegal stay, tahsildar Abhijith visited the spot along other with officials, bringing a JCB to remove the houses belonging to poor families of Haseena Banu, Sabeena, Havabi, Shafiya Banu and Zeenath.

During the operation, former MLA Vasanth Salian along with other officials opposed the tahsildar’s order which they said was being carried without prior notice. They demanded to clear other illegal houses and then remove these houses. "The families are very poor and have been residing in the place for the past 5 years, and they did not obtain the title deed even after appeals were submitted," said the locals.

But the tahsildar was not ready to listen to the representatives. He said that notice has to be first given by the gram panchayat development officer that the 25 acres of land will not be used for any purpose by the government other than to shelter homeless people. "As so far no such notice has been given by the gram panchayat, as per the order by higher authorities, the houses have to be razed down," he said.

Meanwhile, Kapu MLA Lalaji R Mendon visited the spot and asked to maintain status quo on the order as elections are approaching. He said that the state government will soon bring a legislation on the Akrama-Sakrama issues of past 10 years, and till then asked the tahsildar to not make any move.

Former Yellur gram panchayat president Yashawath Shetty threatened to to go on hunger strike if the houses are demolished. "If conversion of grazing land was possible within 24 hours then why can't authorities issue title deeds to these poor families?" he demanded.

Nagesh Bhat, gram panchayat member, Jayanth Kumar, Gangadar Suvarna, Kaup block Congress president, M P Mohideenabba, Srinivas Sharma, Naveen N Shetty, Abdul Azeez, Naveenchandra Suvarna, Laxmi Moolya, Santhosh Shetty, R I Ganesh Balegar, V A Puneeth, Vasanthibai among others were present.