117 Acres Land Given Away By Karnataka Government Against Rules, Encroachers To Congress Among Beneficiaries: CAG Report

A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report titled ‘Grant, Lease, Eviction of Encroachment and Regularisation of Unauthorised Occupation of Government Land’ has revealed that a dozen beneficiaries have gotten 117 acres of government land in violation of government rules, Deccan Herald has reported.

The report was tabled in the Legislative Assembly of Karnataka on Monday (17 December 2018). It examined a random sample of data from 30 Taluks from 11 districts during the period 2012-13 to 2016-17.

Although the land allotment rules do not allow allotment of land to political parties, the Congress party got land to set up its office in Channapatna in October 2015. Even though the rules prohibit land allotment for residential purpose, 15 acres was given to the Karnataka Government Secretariat Group-D Employees Association in the Bengaluru North.

The CAG report also found discrepancies in the disposal of applications seeking the grant of land, monitoring of land use, eviction of encroachments and inventory management. In 10 cases, 390.38 acres of land was granted in spite of incorrect or incomplete verification of the status of these lands. CAG has also revealed that 89 acres of encroached land was allotted to those who had encroached the land.