176 acres acquired for development at Nagavara village yet to be restored to rightful owners despite orders to do so from the apex court in 1995
176 acres acquired for development at Nagavara village yet to be restored to rightful owners despite orders to do so from the apex court in 1995u00a0
Government officials have apparently ignored a Supreme Court order and appear to be favouring the fraudulent Vyalikaval House Building Society.
The 176 acres of land acquired to develop a layout at Nagavara village has not yet been completely restored to the rightful owners despite the apex court order.
The Bangalore Development Authority Commissioner said
he did not have any information about the issueBased on an enquiry committee's report, the SC in 1995 had passed an order to restore the said land to the owners, after quashing the acquisition order.
In another judgment passed in 2007, the apex court had observed that the land was sought to be acquired and stood vitiated.
Based on these judgments, the revenue department had issued an order on February 5 2009, asking the special land acquisition officers to restore the land. However, till date only a few landowners have got their land back.
Not easy task?Sources in the revenue department said that the department was not in a position to restore the land because VIPs, top government officials, politicians and judicial officials have been allotted sites there and were stalling the process.
The source said around 40 acres of the land had been restored, while the rest was in the hands of some with vested interests.
For instance, a former union minister has built a college on the land and is one among those allegedly not allowing the government officials to restore the land back to the rightful owners.
"The department is looking into the issue and there are certain issues to be addressed before the land is restored to the owners," said Ashok Kumar Manoli, revenue secretary.
More reasons!Even the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is yet to act on the High Court order that had asked the civic authority to issue notice to the house building society furnishing complaints against it and disposing complaints on merit and in accordance with Law.
Interestingly, in 2005, Justice K L Manjunath had passed judgment quashing the BDA's order canceling the work order to develop the layout.
He had granted the liberty to the BDA to issue notice to the house building society, but the civic authority has not taken any action till now.
Bharathlal Meena, BDA commissioner, chose not to respond to queries posed by this reporter. "I don't have off-hand information and can't react without referring to files," he said.
