Illegal Land Grab Is So Rampant In Bengaluru That A Lake Is Now Up For Sale In The Garden City

A prime piece of real estate is up for grabs. It abuts the Bengaluru-Chennai expressway - the manufacturing highway of India; is around 6 km from Koramangala - the hub of techies and high net worth individuals; is bang in the middle of the tech corridor stretching from Koramangala to Electronics City - where the big bucks are. Spread over 13 acres and 24 guntas (over 6 football fields), the asking price is Rs 400 crore. The only glitch? It's a lake.

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The land shark (correction: they should henceforth be called lake sharks) versus environment activists' war is playing out over Garvebhavi Palya lake on Hosur Road after documents were discovered that stated that the "land" belongs to a family.

Activists who got a whiff of the intended sale posed as buyers and collected documents from the family. Among the documents is a file noting by none other than "Chief Minister Siddaramaiah" asking officials to "do the needful". This noting - it could not be confirmed whether it is rightfully the CM's - has added some legitimacy to the claims of the family over the parcel of "land". Added to that is a Karnataka High Court order of August 2014 directing the Special Deputy Commissioner of Bengaluru to restore the family's name in the title deed.

Miffed over the blatant act of the "land grabbers", environment advisor to BBMP, Sharath Babu R, collected all the documents and complained to Speaker KB Koliwad, who heads the legislative committee on lake encroachment in Bangalore.

"I have received the complaint and need some time to look at the documents. There is a court order and I also have to collect many more documents from the deputy commissioner's office. I am also calling all the officers who have enquired and declared it as a lake. The enquiry is under process and I will soon come out with a report," Koliwad told Bangalore Mirror.

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The Speaker may need to collect all the documents but this is what we know so far (from the documents in possession of Bangalore Mirror):

The story of the ownership of Garvebhavi Palya lake begins in 1973. A certain Muniswamappa bought and registered 13 acres 23 guntas land of survey number 41 of Hongasandra village. After Muniswamappa's death in 1974, his family got the records changed to reflect their name as the land holders. The family later approached the High Court staking claim over 3 acres of land around the lake saying it belonged to them as per Survey No. 41. In 1994, however, the court rejected their claim.

Then in April, 1996 the Special Deputy Commissioner, Bangalore District initiated suo moto proceedings under section 136 (3) of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act and ordered the Bangalore South Taluk Tahasildar to cancel the entries standing in the name of the owners in respect of Survey No. 41 and instead carry entries in the name of the state government as the area was found to be a lake. However, the owners were not notified of the order and they approached the court for relief. The HC struck down the Special DC's order.

In 2009, on the HC's direction, the Special Deputy Commissioner initiated a fresh enquiry and owners presented their arguments. The owners said that they had approached the court to register the additional 3 acres of land on same survey number and alleged that without assigning any reason, the commissioner changed the ownership of the entire parcel of land and showed it as government land. The special DC, however, contested the claim and stated that land in question was actually a tank. In August 2014, the HC ordered the Special DC to reinstate the owners' name in land holding records.

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A certain MK Ramesh, a family member of Muniswamappa, then approached the CM seeking his intervention in getting khata for a plot of land that was rightfully his.

"The High Court has ruled in our favour to reinstate our names in land records which was removed years back. But the tahasildar is not obliging and I request the chief minister to direct the officers to do the work immediately," states Ramesh's request.

The noting on this letter allegedly has the CM's signature this directive: "Appropriate action to be taken".

With odds loaded heavily in favour of the family due to "carelessness of officials", Sharath Babu R is depending on Koliwad for a solution.

"It is a lake as we all know and we have to save this lake. The owners and others are trying to sell this lake based on fake documents. I agree there is a High Court order favouring the owners, but it happened because our officers didn't proceed properly in court. The court relied on whatever documents were produced on record. Already special commissioners have clearly said it is a lake and removed the names from the records. Once the matter went to court no one properly coordinated and they (the government) lost the case. This problem cropped up as nobody knows who looks after the lakes here. Sometimes they say BDA; then BBMP; then lake authority. There is no clarity and land grabbers are using this to loot our lakes," Babu said.