by reciprocal arrangement with Star of Mysore

• House panel submits first report
• Next report to expose netas, officers

Bangalore, Dec 21: The Legislature Committee, which probed into the grabbing of Government lands in and around Bangalore, submitted its first report to the Assembly Speaker Krishna here this morning.

Addressing the media after submitting the report, Committee Chairman A.T. Ramaswamy, MLA of Arakalgud, disclosed that land-grabbers had encroa-ched about 13600 acres of land belonging to Revenue Department alone in and around Bangalore.

He disclosed that the property thus grabbed is worth Rs. 27,377 crore.

Ramaswamy said that the report was prepared after probing the complaints from the members of the public and Government agencies.

He also said that the Committee would probe into the cases of grabbing lands belonging to 14 other departments.

The land-grabbers encroached the Government lands with the help of forged documents in collusion with Government officers.

The report mentions the involvement of politicians, officers, underworld dons and land developers in the land scam.

Ramaswamy said that the land-grabbers were from the neighbouring States where it is very difficult to grab lands due to stricter laws.

"But here in our State, there is a free atmosphere which makes land-grabbing very easy as the officers and politicians are hand in glove with the land sharks," Ramaswamy regretted.

Many of the land-grabbers had built layouts on the encroached lands without making provision for civic amenity sites, which should be 50 per cent of the total area.

The Committee Chairman said that the next report will disclose the names of the land-grabbers including politicians and officers responsible for the scam.

The report has recommended to the Government to take stringent action against the officials who were connived with the land mafia.

In order to prevent encroach-ments in future, the Government should deal with the land-grabbers under the provisions of Goonda Act, the 90-page report suggested.

Ramaswamy urged the Government to set up a special court to deal with land-grabbing cases.

Committee members Roshan Baig, Vatal Nagaraj, Yogeesh Bhatt, Narayana Swamy and Nadagowda were present at the media conference.

Baig defends report

Roshan Baig sprang a surprise when he said that he did not und-erstand why his party (Congress) was opposing the committee.

"The committee had probed the scam impartially. I do not know why Congressmen are afraid of such a probe. I have sincerely involved in the proceedings of the committee.