Karkala: Tug of war between postal department, town municipality over land
R B Jagadish
Daijiworld Media Network – Karkala (EP)
Karkala, Oct 27: It has come to light that the Karkala town municipality has been 'illegally' using the land belonging to the post office for bus stand for the last twelve years. The survey of this land was done in Karkala bus stand area on Friday, October 25 under tight security.
The survey work was held in the presence of tahsildar Babu Devadiga, Puttur division postal department official, Govind Naik, town municipal council executive Gopalakrishna Shetty and ASP Annamalai.
The extension of bus stand initiated by some businessmen in 1996, faced scarcity of space for buses. Some of the businessmen, who own a mall in the vicinity, allowed their vehicle parking space and some other space totally measuring 70 cents for the extension of bus stand under an agreement between them and the municipality. It appeared that their commercial interest was hidden in the deal.
A well that was at the entry point to the extended bus stand was filled. The land measuring 25 cents that was owned by the postal department under survey No 135/5 was also acquired for the bus stand. The land was tarred and construction of shops was permitted in it. Street lights were also erected.
Though the media highlighted the developments from time to time, the postal department ignored them. Meanwhile, the head of the postal division in Karkala wrote a letter to the chief executive of Karkala town municipality stating that 25 cents of land in survey No 135/5 belongs to the postal department and requested for an opportunity to conduct a survey and fix a boundary.
The survey that started at 7.30 am on Friday October 25 continued till the evening. Around 10 illegal shops in the area were razed down.
Soon after the survey, the process began to take back the land by the postal department. As per the orders of higher officials, work began on constructing a compound wall to secure the area.
However, on Saturday October 26, the members of Karkala Hitarakshana Samiti submitted a memorandum to the DC stating that the sudden action of the postal department to claim back the land by razing down shops and building compound wall was likely to create unrest among people. The Samiti urged the DC to make alternate arrangements to pacify the postal department. The DC issued a stay order on the postal department's work on the area and instructed them to let the bus stand operate for the time being.
Gopalakrishna Shetty, chief municipal official at Karkala stated that appropriate action under the guidance of deputy commissioner will be taken on the petition submitted by the postal department claiming that the land hitherto used for bus stand belongs to them.
When contacted, Puttur division postal department official Govinda Naik said that he will be writing to the municipality official requesting for his permission to build the compound wall. He disclosed that several telephone calls are being received from people's representatives requesting to put a brake on the work.
As three-fourth of the land at the entry point belongs to the postal department and the new bus stand is likely to be too congested, posing risk to life and property, the people opine that the newly built Bandimutt bus stand should be considered as a permanent bus stand by the municipality.
Bharatlal Meena, the then deputy commissioner of undivided Dakshina Kannada district had allotted a land measuring two and three-fourth acre for Karkala bus stand. The municipal council had concreted the area at a cost of Rs 2 crores about one-and-a-half years ago. The bus stand was inaugurated by the then chief minister, D V Sadananda Gowda and was unanimously named Dr V S Acharya memorial bus stand across party lines. The bus stand is deserted as no buses are using it. The municipal council should come forward to develop the bus stand instead of trying to retain the congested bus stand, said Mohammed Sharif, municipal councilor.