BANGALORE: There are reasons to believe that the State Government is not keen on recovering the encroached land belonging to the Beggars Colony as more than 12 years have passed since Supreme Court ruled that 1.5 acres of land near Sumanahalli belongs to the Beggars’ Rehabilitation Centre. The government has not yet initiated any measures to take back the land from squatters and also act against a lessee though the lease period on over 50 acres of land belonging to the Beggars Colony expired more than three years ago. Central Relief Committee Secretary Dr RN Raja Naik said,”We had written to the Revenue Department requesting them to recover the land from the encroachers and in turn, the department had said that it would issue the notices to the encroachers and fix a date for demolishing the illegal structures and take possession of the land. We will have to follow it up with the Revenue Department.”Around 1.5 acres of land worth more than `25 crore, belonging to the Beggars Colony, was encroached upon by the family members of one late Govindraju in 1980 and the State Government had filed a civil suit in the court. In 1996, the High Court had decided the case in favour of Beggars colony and Govindraju had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court. In 1998, the Supreme Court had held that the land in question belonged to the Beggars colony and had left it to the State Government to recover the land. However, the State Government has not done anything in this regard so far. According to sources, the land is in the possession of some influential persons after the death of Govindraju. The State Government had leased out 55 acres and 25 guntas of land to Sumanahalli Leprosy Rehabilitation Centre for 30 years in 1977 and the lease period expired in 2007. According to sources, the institution which is running this centre is lobbying hard to convince the government to extend the lease. At present, the Beggars Colony has only 38 acres of the 308.03 acres of land allotted to it by the Maharaja of Mysore in 1944. The remaining land is either leased or allotted to Unani Medical College, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Outer Ring Road, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike and Slum Clearance Board .
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