Data reveals over 16,000 acres of land encroached in Bengaluru Urban

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: While the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has recently resumed the drive to clear encroachments in the city, a data tabled in the Karnataka Legislative Council showed that the total extent of revenue land encroached in Bengaluru Urban district stood at 16,478 acres and the Revenue Department land that has been encroached in the State is 2.82 lakh acres.

According to sources, the encroached land in Bengaluru can easily exceed Rs 48,000-64,000 crore and it is alleged that large pockets are encroached by the politicians-builder nexus.

The BBMP anti-encroachment drive is taking place mainly along Rajakaluves and other storm-water drains (SWD) to prevent flooding and water logging incidents.

In the last 15 days, the BBMP has removed 25-30 encroachments from the SWDs. BBMP chief commissioner Tushar Girinath, said the removal of encroachments was pending in as many as 571 survey numbers across the city besides 118 survey numbers where the drive has been halted due to litigation.

“I have asked tahsildars to issue orders after conducting surveys without any discrepancies. We are working towards vacating the court stay orders,” he said.