Revenue Minister R. Ashoka to hand over order copy to DC today?

Mysore/Mysuru: Finally, the long-standing Kurubarahalli Survey No.4 and Alanahalli Survey No. 41 land row will come to a logical end with Revenue Minister R. Ashoka to hand over the Government Order to the Mysuru Deputy Commissioner (DC) later in the day today declaring the MUDA-allotted sites in Siddartha, K.C. and J.C. Layouts  are not B-Kharab land.

The Revenue Minister, who will be arriving in the city this afternoon to hold a meeting with senior officers at the Government Guest House in Nazarbad, will officially hand over the Government Order to the Deputy Commissioner, who is also the MUDA Chairman, for further action.

The order dated July 14, 2020, issued by C. Balaram, Under-Secretary to the Government, Revenue Department (Land Allotment-I), comes after the Karnataka High Court in its order on June 19, 2020, set aside the then Deputy Commissioner’s order on May 26, 2015, classifying lands coming under Kurubarahalli Survey No.4 and Alanahalli Survey No.41 as B-Kharab, meaning Government land. The Court had also ordered to register mutation in the name of the aggrieved land owners as per norms.

The Government Order, based on the High Court ruling, said that 205.09 ½ acres of land in Kurubarahalli Survey No.4, that has been utilised by the then CITB (now MUDA) for formation of Siddartha Layout,105 acres of land for formation of K.C. Layout and 44.20 acres of land for formation of J.C. Layout, totalling 354.29 ½ acres, has been dropped from B-Kharab classification and the MUDA has been directed to take follow up action in this regard.

It may be mentioned here that though the then Congress Government led by Chief Minister Siddharamaiah had passed a Cabinet decision in 2018, the authorities had not shown any interest in implementing the Cabinet decision to delete CITB and MUDA Layouts coming under Kurubarahalli Survey No. 4 and Alanahalli Survey No.41 from B-Kharab classification.

The Government Order has come as a big relief to thousands of property owners in these three MUDA-developed Layouts, who had waged a legal battle in the Courts contesting the May 2015 DC’s Order declaring the lands as B-Kharab.

It may be recalled that K.R. MLA S.A. Ramdas under whose Constituency these Layouts come, in a press meet last month, had promised to publicly announce the Government Order on resolving the issue, in the presence of the Revenue Minister. Now his promise has been fulfilled with  Revenue Minister R. Ashoka  to officially hand over the Government Order to the DC.

THE CASE: After the Government declared that about 2,000 acres of land collectively coming under Kurubarahalli Survey. No.4, Alanahalli Survey No.41 and Chowdahalli Survey No.39 as B-Kharab land (Government land), hundreds of property owners who had purchased them from the Maharajas or got the property from the Maharaja as a gift were affected by the ruling, moved the High Court questioning the Government’s declaration. 

The property owners had claimed that the properties owned by them were either purchased by themselves or by their ancestors or gifted to them by the erstwhile Mysore Maharajas.

Incidentally, it was contended that the Maharaja got these lands as his private property through an agreement entered into on Jan.26, 1950 between the then Maharaja and the Government of India.

Many advocates had filed petitions in the High Court on behalf of their land owner clients. The HC, after hearing prolonged arguments and counter-arguments, gave the ruling on June 19, 2020 through video-conferencing, thus bringing not only a huge relief for the property owners, but also putting an end to the row, which had been running for years.