Date:13/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/13/stories/2006051306020400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Encroachers on government land must be evicted, officials told

Staff Reporter

Kumaraswamy attends review meeting of Bangalore Rural Zilla Panchayat

REVIEW MEETING: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy (second from right), with (from left) zilla panchayat vice-president L.C. Venkatesh, president Shanthamma and Minister for Forests and Environment C. Chennigappa at a meeting of the Bangalore Rural Zi lla Panchayat in Bangalore on Friday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

Bangalore: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has started to review the progress of development activities at the zilla panchayat level to understand firsthand the problems at the grass roots. When he attended a review meeting of the Bangalore Rural Zilla Panchayat on Friday, Mr. Kumaraswamy became the second Chief Minister after the late Ramakrishna Hegde to attend a zilla panchayat meeting.

The Chief Minister directed the Deputy Commissioner of the district to immediately evict encroachers on government land.

House committee

Replying to complaints about encroachment from legislators and chairpersons of the standing committees of the zilla panchayat at the quarterly review meeting, Mr. Kumaraswamy said that similar cases around Bangalore had been referred to a House Committee of the Legislative Assembly.

All complaints about encroachment of government in the district would be referred to it. He advised officials against yielding to pressure.

He was referring to the complaint by M.K. Nagaraj, Congress MLA for Hoskote, that 2,000 acres of government land in his constituency had been encroached upon in connivance with the police and Revenue Department officials. Mr. Nagaraj also said that the Deputy Commissioner "is unable to deal with the encroachers." He demanded suspension of some of the officials of the zilla panchayat.

Mr. Kumaraswamy told J. Narasimha Swamy (Congress) and H.C. Balakrishna (Janata Dal-S) that there was no need for a package to develop roads in the district. Work on building a ring road to link the five proposed townships at Sathanur, Solur, Bidadi, Ramanagaram and Nandagudi to decongest Bangalore would be taken up in three months. It was being undertaken by the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority and would be completed in two years.

The meeting was attended by Minister for Forests and Environment C. Chennigappa; zilla panchayat president Shantamma; Vinay Kumar, Principal Secretary, Department of Infrastructure Development; Deputy Commissioner Kongavad and zilla panchayat chief executive officer Rangaswamy.

The Chief Minister told the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation, the Karnataka State Backward Classes Development Corporation and the Karnataka Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Development Corporation to be ready with the list of beneficiaries for various schemes. He warned officials that disciplinary action would be taken against them if they were found wanting in implementing poverty alleviation programmes for the minorities, the backward classes and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Mr. Kumaraswamy took to task officers of the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) for furnishing false information to legislators on the number of transformers installed in Magadi Assembly constituency.

C.P. Yogeshwar, Channapatna MLA, demanded the improvement of roads, the power supply system and sought employment for the rural poor. The Chief Minister told BESCOM officials to put up substations in Ramanagaram.

Narasimha Swamy, Doddaballapur MLA, said officials had not implemented the orders issued by the Chief Minister to provide water to Doddaballapur town. He wanted the capacity of the tank in Doddaballapur to be enhanced for catering to the growing population.