The Jagadish Shettar government in Karnataka is considering a proposal to revive the AT Ramaswamy committee report on encroachment of government land in Bangalore, which has unearthed over 40,000 acres land worth Rs 50,000 crore encroached in and around Bangalore.    

The report of task force on government land encroachment across the state headed by V Balasubramaniam would also be taken up. The government has short listed retired additional chief secretaries K Jairaj and Balasubramaniam (task force head) to suggest government ways and means to implement both the reports.    

Deputy Chief Minister KS Eshwarappa, who also holds Revenue portfolio, told a leading newspaper that the government is serious about implementing these reports. Precious land worth several thousand crore rupees have been encroached by land mafia.The government know it has to antagonise several influential people.    

Despite this a team involving Jairaj and Balasubramaniam will be constituted to implement both the reports, he added.    

A Joint Legislature Committee (JLC), headed by Ramaswamy was formed by the government to probe encroachments. The committee submitted two reports which stated that more than 40,000 acres were encroached. Not much was done by the successive governments to implement the report.    

Another attempt to identify encroached land was made by Yeddyurappa government. It formed a task force headed by Balasubramanian in September 2009 for this purpose. However, Revenue Minister under Yeddyurapap, G Karunakara Reddy declined to accept the report faulting the former bureaucrat for flouting norms while submitting the report.    

The Deputy CM said a decision would be taken to reopen both the reports.Karnataka Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act-2007 has also been passed proposing imprisonment for land grabbers. However, the bill is pending before the President.